In each generation, heroes of the Faith, whom the Church recognizes as saints, emerge. There are many characteristics that they have in common, but none thus far have used cell phones, played PlayStation video games, or searched for information on Google. That is about to change. A young "computer geek" named Carlo Acutis, who created a website cataloguing every reported Eucharistic miracle in the world and died of leukemia a year later at age fifteen, was beatified in November 2019, after a healing miracle in Brazil was attributed to his intercession. Since the beatification ceremony one year later, solemn crowds have been filing past the exposed relics of the blessed youth in Assisi's Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Carlo is a sign of contradiction in the modern world who serves as a heroic model for today's young people--a teenager who programmed computers and enjoyed films and comics yet lived as an authentic and sincere disciple of Christ. In these pages, you'll discover how he embraced the Faith as a boy and developed the virtues necessary to live a Christ-centered life in a secular society, how he overcame the vices that plagued him, and how he gracefully dealt with heartaches he could not divulge even to his parents. When he developed leukemia, he offered his suffering both for Pope Benedict XVI and for the Catholic Church, saying: "I offer all the suffering I will have to undergo for the Lord, for the Pope, and the Church." In this surprising and inspiring book, you'll also learn: How Carlo became holy, in only a few short years The young man's unusual loneliness and how he dealt with it His strategy for resisting peer pressure How he had fun without losing control and learned to resist gluttony How he interacted with teen girls who became his friends Why his explanations about the Mass are used in today's catechism classes in Italy How he dealt with friends who were sexually promiscuous and what he told them How he responded to the shocking news that he was dying (which happened two weeks later) His remarkable Eucharistic Miracles Exhibition--made possible by his computer skills--that is now touring churches all over Europe

Carlo Acutis, born May 3, 1991, fully embraced the gift of life. Known as a computer whiz, he also liked to play soccer, video games, and the saxophone. He enjoyed watching his favorite police dramas and making short films with his star cast of cats and dogs. He had many friends and enjoyed spending time with them. Yet Carlo was a little “different” at school, in the pizzerias, and on the soccer field. What set Carlo apart was his constant pursuit of holiness. In addition to his fun hobbies, he spent time teaching catechism classes and serving in soup kitchens. Carlo loved to attend daily Mass and frequent Eucharistic adoration. The Word of God and the Eucharist were the center of his life. Carlo’s unwavering devotion to the Eucharist inspired him to tell the story of Eucharistic miracles through a website he created just for fun. He wanted to deepen his own knowledge of these phenomena, to strengthen his devotion to Jesus, and to invite others to grow in love for the Eucharist. The website subsequently caught the attention of people across the globe, introducing countless people to Eucharistic miracles. Carlo died from a sudden and violent illness in 2006 at the age of fifteen. In less than a decade, his story spread across Italy and around the world. After Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2018, his beatification was celebrated in Assisi on October 10, 2020. The next step will be canonization, making him the first millennial saint.

Leilani Santiago is back in her birthplace, the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, to help keep afloat the family business, a shave ice shack. When she goes to work one morning, she stumbles across a dead body, a young pro surfer who was being coached by her estranged father. As her father soon becomes the No. 1 murder suspect, Leilani must find the real killer and somehow safeguard her ill mother, little sisters, and grandmother while also preserving a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend in Seattle.

From the Nobel Prize winner comes a captivating novel about an idealistic Icelandic farmer who journeys to Mormon Utah and back in search of paradise. • "Full of an earthy poetry...a style wonderfully wise and entirely Scandinavian in its combination of magic and reality." —The New York Times Book Review • With an introduction by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres. The quixotic hero of this long-lost classic is Steinar of Hlidar, a generous but very poor man who lives peacefully on a tiny farm in nineteenth-century Iceland with his wife and two adoring young children. But when he impulsively offers his children's beloved pure-white pony to the visiting King of Denmark, he sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that leaves his family in ruins and himself at the other end of the earth, optimistically building a home for them among the devout polygamists in the Promised Land of Utah. By the time the broken family is reunited, Laxness has spun his trademark blend of compassion and comically brutal satire into a moving and spellbinding enchantment, composed equally of elements of fable and folkore and of the most humble truths.

Written by distinguished historians with the force of a novel, this book reconstructs the web of religious ecstacy, greed, and seduction within the cult of the Prophet Matthias in New York in 1834 and captures the heated atmosphere of the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening. Illustrations.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the widely acclaimed, bestselling author of American War—a beautifully written, unrelentingly dramatic, and profoundly moving novel that looks at the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child. "Told from the point of view of two children, on the ground and at sea, the story so astutely unpacks the us-versus-them dynamics of our divided world that it deserves to be an instant classic." —The New York Times Book Review More bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled, ill-equipped, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives back in their homelands. But miraculously, someone has survived the passage: nine-year-old Amir, a Syrian boy who is soon rescued by Vänna. Vänna is a teenage girl, who, despite being native to the island, experiences her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though Vänna and Amir are complete strangers, though they don’t speak a common language, Vänna is determined to do whatever it takes to save the boy. In alternating chapters, we learn about Amir’s life and how he came to be on the boat, and we follow him and the girl as they make their way toward safety. What Strange Paradise is the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world. But it is also a story of empathy and indifference, of hope and despair—and about the way each of those things can blind us to reality.

A beautiful new life of Carlo Acutis the IT enthusiast who died at just 15 years old but lived his life for Christ. The author introduces us to the five simple practices which helped to make Blessed Carlo Acutis the first Millennial Blessed. Richly illustrated with photographs of Blessed Carlo and with a great selection of his sayings this is an ideal introduction to a wonderful life. "We make a choice in life: God or nothing. Blessed Carlo Acutis chose God - "Not I, but God" - in five simple practices. The Mass, Adoration, Confession and spiritual guidance, befriending the Blessed Mother and the saints, and charity. These daily "appointments" led Carlo to a life of intimacy with Jesus and love for neighbour " - Cardinal Sarah

The director of the riding program at Sweet Briar College for more than 30 years, Cronin is a well-known and highly respected trainer and riding instructor. Here he presents a clear and practical guide to getting the most out of a horse in a humane and sensitive way.

"Hilariously funny…Lydia Millet’s novels raise the bar for boldness." —Rene Steinke, New York Times Book Review In this “comic masterpiece” (Salon), honeymooners Deb and Chip—our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband—befriend a marine biologist who discovers mermaids in a coral reef. As a resort chain swoops in to exploit the shy creatures, the newlyweds unite with other adventurous vacationers to stop the company from turning the reef into a theme park. Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet’s most fun book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories.