The Scandalous Menu


Book Description

The Eucharist is the living parable of the Christian life and story. It embodies every aspiration, teaching, hope, sacrifice, and selfless act of mercy and grace. Christ left it as a memorial in word, presence, and deed. It is love before us as Christ’s very own real presence empowers and wills us to love others as he loved us first. The Eucharist is the multisensory expression of Christ consciousness embodied in matter and in time. Anyone who embraces the real presence of Christ in Spirit and in truth will experience a life transformed. The experience of gathered worship, prayer, study, spirituality, and acts of justice and mercy will never again be the same. Written for the Church universal, The Scandalous Menu is a manifesto for the local church to embrace the supernatural power of the Eucharist and to reclaim the sacrament as the source of meaning and definition for life together as a people of God in Christ. It is the call to reaffirm marriage vows with the bridegroom and for aspiring to be a Eucharistic community in the context and place God has called the local church to be, serve, and do. This book is a call to a life of deep intimacy, a higher experience of God, and an invitation to unending transformation.




The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse


Book Description

A magical coming-of-age tale in rural Zimbabwe Ah, you’ve arrived. Sit down, please, and make yourself comfortable. There may not be much dinner tonight – Father is still out of work; Mother can’t do anything with those stunted maize plants in the stony ground – but at least you are here, in Gushure Village, home to unsurpassed raconteurs and the Guramatunhu family, who know that telling stories staves off hunger. Surprise awaits at every turn: thoughts and conversations bloom into poems, political speeches and songs. You will find instructions for cooking a hare, for how to defend yourself when a dead snake is your enemy’s chosen weapon, how to speak in war tongues, how to compose a fist and aim it at a tree trunk, how to eliminate animal terrorism in a time of rabies, how to rehearse the body-viewing of a good-looking corpse, how to rock under flying okapis with The Double Shuffle, and how to practise your lovemaking technique on a woman drawn in the sand. At a time when cooked ants constitute a feast, the future nevertheless holds abundant prospects for the boy who devours words. But there is an unexpected fork in the road for this book louse, and plenty of wondrous twists and shocking turns. Hilarious, poetic and poignant, Robert Muponde’s vibrant coming-of-age story of Ronald Guramatunhu brings to life rural Zimbabwe from the Second Chimurenga to independence. There are malevolent mermaids, eccentric shamans, outrageous relatives, fearsome teachers, and men who transform into hippos in a tale that captures all the magic of childhood.




The Invention of the Restaurant


Book Description

Winner of the Louis Gottschalk Prize Winner of the Thomas J. Wilson Memorial Prize “Witty and full of fascinating details.” —Los Angeles Times Why are there restaurants? Why would anybody consider eating alongside perfect strangers in a loud and crowded room to be an enjoyable pastime? To find the answer, Rebecca Spang takes us back to France in the eighteenth century, when a restaurant was not a place to eat but a quasi-medicinal bouillon not unlike the bone broths of today. This is a book about the French revolution in taste—about how Parisians invented the modern culture of food, changing the social life of the world in the process. We see how over the course of the Revolution, restaurants that had begun as purveyors of health food became symbols of aristocratic greed. In the early nineteenth century, the new genre of gastronomic literature worked within the strictures of the Napoleonic state to transform restaurants yet again, this time conferring star status upon oysters and champagne. “An ambitious, thought-changing book...Rich in weird data, unsung heroes, and bizarre true stories.” —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker “[A] pleasingly spiced history of the restaurant.” —New York Times “A lively, engrossing, authoritative account of how the restaurant as we know it developed...Spang is...as generous in her helpings of historical detail as any glutton could wish.” —The Times




Turcologica Upsaliensia


Book Description

The richly illustrated essays in Turcologica Upsaliensia tell of scholars, travellers, diplomats and collectors who explored the Turkic-speaking world while affiliated with Sweden’s oldest university, at Uppsala, and who enriched the University Library with collections of Turkic cultural heritage objects.




The Emily Giffin Collection: Volume 1


Book Description

Available for the first time in this stunning electronic edition, THE EMILY GIFFIN COLLECTION: VOLUME 1 is sure to delight the blockbuster bestselling author's millions of fans. Includes: SOMETHING BORROWED Rachel White is the consummate good girl. A hardworking attorney at a large Manhattan law firm and a diligent maid-of-honor to her charmed best friend Darcy, Rachel has always done the right thing and played by all the rules. Since grade school, she has watched Darcy shine, quietly accepting the sidekick role in their lopsided friendship. But that suddenly changes the night of her thirtieth birthday when Rachel finally confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiancé, Dex—and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same about her. As the September wedding date nears, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself. SOMETHING BLUE Darcy Rhone has always been able to rely on a few things: Her beauty and charm. Her fiancé Dex. Her lifelong best friend Rachel. She never needed anything else. Or so she thinks until Dex calls off their dream wedding and she uncovers the ultimate betrayal. Blaming everyone but herself, Darcy flees to London and attempts to recreate her glamorous life on a new continent. But to her dismay, she discovers that her tried-and-true tricks no longer apply—and that her luck has finally expired. It is only then that she can begin her journey toward redemption, forgiveness, and true love. LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH Ellen and Andy Graham have the perfect marriage. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo. The one who brought out the worst in her. The one who left her heartbroken nearly a decade ago. The one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she's living is the one she's meant to live.




Borrowed & Blue


Book Description

A beautifully repackaged bind-up of two of Emily Giffin's beloved New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed: A novel for every woman who has ever had a complicated love-hate friendship. A hard-working attorney at a large Manhattan firm and a diligent maid of honor to her best friend Darcy, Rachel White has always played by all the rules, quietly accepting the sidekick role to Darcy in their lopsided friendship. But that changes the night that Rachel confesses her feelings to Darcy's fiance, and is both horrified and thrilled to discover that he feels the same way. As the wedding date draws near, events spiral out of control, and Rachel knows she must make a choice between her heart and conscience. In so doing, she discovers that the lines between right and wrong can be blurry, endings aren't always neat, and sometimes you have to risk everything to be true to yourself. Something Blue: A story of betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness. Darcy Rhone has always been able to rely on a few things: Her beauty and charm. Her fiance, Dex. Her best friend, Rachel. She never needed anything else. Or so she thinks until Dex calls off their dream wedding and she uncovers the ultimate betrayal. Blaming everyone but herself, Darcy flees to London and attempts to re-create her glamorous life on a new continent. But to her dismay, she discovers that her tried-and-true tricks no longer apply--and that her luck has finally expired. It is only then that she can begin her journey toward redemption, forgiveness, and true love.




Something Borrowed


Book Description

After a night of indiscriminate partying, Rachel sleeps with a close friend's fianc and is consumed with guilt, until the intensity of her feelings forces her to make a difficult choice. A first novel. 50,000 first printing.




Best Places: Northern California, 6th Edition


Book Description

This new 6th edition of Best Places Northern California recommends the very best restaurants and lodgings throughout the region. Local food and travel experts uncover the finest and most interesting places to go for a romantic getaway, a weekend retreat, or a week-long family vacation. Locals and travelers will find recommendations, attractions, and convenient Three-Day Tours for all major destinations, including updated, star-rated restaurant, winery, and lodging reviews. New sidebars cover free Wi-Fi in San Francisco, the fascinating Paso Robles Wineries, and where to find the most scrumptious desserts. An expanded Central Coast chapter covers the areas of San Simeon, Estero Bay, and San Luis Obispo. Updated maps and a wealth of illustrations help make this the ideal travel companion for any visit, whether a romantic getaway, weekend retreat, or weeklong family vacation.




The Pleasures and Horrors of Eating


Book Description

Browsing through books and TV channels we find people pre-occupied with eating, cooking and competing with chefs. Eating and food in today's media have become a form of entertainment and art. A survey of literary history and culture shows to what extent eating used to be closely related to all areas of human life, to religion, eroticism and even to death.In this volume, early modern ideas of feasting, banqueting and culinary pleasures are juxtaposed with post-18th- and 19th-century concepts in which the intake of food is increasingly subjected to moral, theological and economic reservations. In a wide range of essays, various images, rhetorics and poetics of plenty are not only contrasted with the horrors of gluttony, they are also seen in the context of modern phenomena such as the anorexic body or the gourmandizing bête humaine.It is this vexing binary approach to eating and food which this volume traces within a wide chronological framework and which is at the core not only of literature, art and film, but also of a flourishing popular culture.




April Queen


Book Description

Eleanor of Aquitaine was the only person ever to sit on the thrones of both France and England. In this account of the turbulent adventures of the extraordinary mother of Richard the Lionheart and King John, author Douglas Boyd takes us into the heart and mind of the woman who changed the shape of Europe for 300 years by marrying Henry of Anjou to make him England's Henry II. Brought up in the comfort- and culture-loving Mediterranean civilisation of southern France, she was a European with a continent-wide vision and a peculiarly 'modern' woman who rejected the subordinate female role decreed by the Church. In this biography, using French, Old French, Latin and Occitan sources, Douglas Boyd lays bare Eleanor's relationship and vividly brings her world to life.