The Pivotal Moments in the Old Testament series helps readers see Scripture with new eyes, highlighting short, key texts—pivotal moments—that shift our expectations and invite us to turn toward another reality transformed by God's purposes and action. The book of Jeremiah tells the story of a prophetic mission that seems doomed to fail. God instructs Jeremiah to call to account a people who refuse to turn from their unfaithfulness until it is too late, and they encounter destruction at the hands of the Babylonians. Yet underlying the themes of warning and judgment is a steady refrain: God’s desire to draw God’s people back into covenant, even when things seem past the point of no return. What lessons can contemporary readers draw from the narrative of a stubborn people who cling to their exploitative ways and a God who, even so, relentlessly pursues them? In Returning from the Abyss, Walter Brueggemann explores the historical and literary context of the book of Jeremiah to illuminate the dual themes of Israel’s long walk into, and out of, the trauma and devastation of exile. Throughout, Brueggemann points out the role of the prophet in overturning a people’s illusory sense of security in unjust structures that are not of God and leading those same people toward the hope of restoration and return. He also highlights the persistent themes of empire, self-sufficiency, and withholding from neighbor that inform the narratives of both Israel and "American exceptionalism" and examines how the holiness of God is at work in untamed historical processes that point us toward a costly hope for a just economic and political future.

A mage out of her element After five hundred years as a magic teacher, Selia thought she’d seen everything. But nothing prepared her for the chaos of her assignment at Braelyn. Assassins, rogue princes, and a grown, half-human student—all had caught her off guard. Now, things have settled down, and her life has begun to take on a sense of normalcy. Until her seemingly dead husband reappears astride a dragon with a dire warning about Earth. An adventurer far from home For seven years, Aris was held captive on the isle of dragons, hidden so well that only his captor knew of his presence. But when a dragon claims him as her rider and flies him away on an urgent mission, Aris isn’t certain he wants to return home. Tortured and scarred, not even thoughts of his lost family renew his desire for life. Unfortunately, death isn’t on the table—not with danger threatening multiple worlds. A widening abyss Life might have settled on Moranaia after Prince Kien’s death, but the rogue prince hasn’t gone to his death as quietly as his people believed. As poison seeps into a crack in Earth’s energy field, a greater catastrophe looms. Now a dragon, a broken adventurer, and an uncertain mage are the only ones who stand in the way of disaster.

“To the novel—everyone’s novel—Sorrentino brings honor, tradition, and relentless passion.”—Don DeLillo “Sorrentino [is] a writer like no other. He’s learned, companionable, ribald, brave, mathematical, at once virtuosic and somehow without ego. Sorrentino’s books break free of the routine that inevitably accompanies traditional narrative and through a passionate renunciation shine with an unforgiving, yet cleansing, light.”—Jeffrey Eugenides “For a compelling, hilarious, and ultimately compassionate rendering of life in mid-20th-century America, forget the conscientious subjectors and take Gilbert Sorrentino at his golden Word.”—Harry Mathews “One of [Brooklyn]’s most intriguing and authentic homegrown talents, Sorrentino’s Bay Ridge deserves to be appreciated alongside Malamud’s Crown Heights, Arthur Miller’s Coney Island, Henry Miller’s and Betty Smith’s Williamsburg, Hamill’s and Auster’s Park Slope, and Lethem’s Boerum Hill.”—Bookforum Titled after a line from Henry James, Gilbert Sorrentino’s final novel consists of fifty narrative set pieces full of savage humor and cathartic passion—an elegiac paean to the bleak world he so brilliantly captured in his long and storied career. Mirroring the inexplicable coincidences, encounters, and hallmarks of modern life, this novel revisits familiar characters—the aging artists, miserable couples, crackerjack salesmen, and drunken soldiers of previous books, placing them in familiar landscapes lost in time between the Depression era and some fraudulent bohemia of the present . A luminary of American literature, Gilbert Sorrentino was a boyhood friend of Hubert Selby, Jr., a confidant of William Carlos Williams, a two-time PEN/Faulkner Award finalist, and the recipient of a Lannan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award. He taught at Stanford for many years before returning to his native Brooklyn and published over thirty books before his death in 2006.

In this painting by renowned aviation artist, Keith Ferris, B-17 Little Willie struggles home from the Abyss on two engines following a March 6, 1944, raid on Berlin. The pilot, Flight Officer Bernie Dopko, brought Willie and his crew home safely. Following several days of repairs Dopko and crew took Willie back to Berlin where they were shot down. They survived World War 2 as POWs. For mission details, contact Keith at www.keithferrisart.com. Artist Ferris, enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2012, was born in 1929, the son of a career Air Force Officer. He attended Texas, A&M, majoring in Aeronautical Engineering; George Washington University, and Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. He began his art career as a civilian in Air Force Publications at Randolph Field in 1947, and in 1956 became a freelance artist in the New York area. He created the 25 foot high by 75 foot wide mural in oil Fortresses Under Fire in the World War 2 Gallery of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and the 20 foot by 75 foot Evolution of Jet Aviation mural in the museums Jet Aviation Gallery. He has 63 major paintings in the Air Force Art Collection.

The sequel to London Shah's thrilling futuristic mystery The Light at the Bottom of the World, perfect for fans of Illuminae and These Broken Stars Leyla McQueen has finally reunited with her father after breaking him out of Broadmoor, the illegal government prison—but his freedom comes at a terrible cost. As Leyla celebrates his return, she must grapple with the pain of losing Ari. Now separated from the boy who has her heart and labeled the nation’s number one enemy, Leyla must risk illegal travel through unchartered waters in her quest for the truth behind her father's arrest. Across Britain, the fallout from Leyla's actions has escalated tensions between Anthropoid and non-Anthropoid communities, bringing them to an all-time high. And, as Leyla and her friends fight to uncover the startling truths about their world, she discovers her own shocking past—and the horrifying secrets behind her father’s abduction and arrest. But as these long-buried truths finally begin to surface, so, too, do the authorities’ terrible future plans. And if the ever-pervasive fear prevents the people from taking a stand now, the abyss could stay in the dark forever.

Using eyewitness accounts, official documents, and rarely seen photos, Sailing Into the Abyss takes a fascinating look at the human drama behind the deadliest sea disaster of the Vietnam War. 8-page photo insert.

This is the heart-rending tale of thirteen-year-old Meena, who due to an unfortunate turn of events ends up in one of the brothels of Bombay, India. Her mother, Devi, is tricked into selling her into prostitution slavery by a well-known doctor of a Nepali village community. Meena remains locked up there for four years. At first she refuses the business but Chowla Bai, the Madame of the brothel and her goons subject her to the worst torture, humiliation and rapes. These finally break her resistance. In the brothel she develops a strong and deep friendship with another girl, Pooja, who later dies of AIDS. After Pooja's death, Meena conceives and gives birth to a daughter, whom she murders in desperation. She is also harassed by one particular client, Sahib, who causes her extreme emotional hurt and anxiety. While in the brothel she witnesses a brutal murder and also the escape of two girls, Rani and Nanni. She herself is rescued by a foreign agency and returns to Nepal to face a myriad of social problems. She falls in love, but must make a bitter decision.

When men start vanishing at sea without a trace, seventeen-year-old Reyna, a Master Explorer, must travel to a country shrouded in secrets to solve the mystery before it is too late.

“The Cold War . . . was a fight to the death,” notes Thomas C. Reed, “fought with bayonets, napalm, and high-tech weaponry of every sort—save one. It was not fought with nuclear weapons.” With global powers now engaged in cataclysmic encounters, there is no more important time for this essential, epic account of the past half century, the tense years when the world trembled At the Abyss. Written by an author who rose from military officer to administration insider, this is a vivid, unvarnished view of America’s fight against Communism, from the end of WWII to the closing of the Strategic Air Command, a work as full of human interest as history, rich characters as bloody conflict. Among the unforgettable figures who devised weaponry, dictated policy, or deviously spied and subverted: Whittaker Chambers—the translator whose book, Witness, started the hunt for bigger game: Communists in our government; Lavrenti Beria—the head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program who apparently killed Joseph Stalin; Col. Ed Hall—the leader of America’s advanced missile system, whose own brother was a Soviet spy; Adm. James Stockwell—the prisoner of war and eventual vice presidential candidate who kept his terrible secret from the Vietnamese for eight long years; Nancy Reagan—the “Queen of Hearts,” who was both loving wife and instigator of palace intrigue in her husband’s White House. From Eisenhower’s decision to beat the Russians at their own game, to the “Missile Gap” of the Kennedy Era, to Reagan’s vow to “lean on the Soviets until they go broke”—all the pivotal events of the period are portrayed in new and stunning detail with information only someone on the front lines and in backrooms could know. Yet At the Abyss is more than a riveting and comprehensive recounting. It is a cautionary tale for our time, a revelation of how, “those years . . . came to be known as the Cold War, not World War III.”