While nothing can equal or replace the adventure in reading Tolkien’s masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, Peter Kreeft says that the journey into its underlying philosophy can be another exhilarating adventure.
Thus, Kreeft takes the reader on a voyage of discovery into the philosophical bones of Middle earth. He organizes the philosophical themes in The Lord of the Rings into 50 categories, accompanied by over 1,000 references to the text of Lord.Since many of the great questions of philosophy are included in the 50-theme outline, this book can also be read as an engaging introduction to philosophy. For each of the philosophical topics in Lord, Kreeft presents tools by which they can be understood. Illustrated.

Behind their brave and independent exteriors young men are searching for answers. Without counsel how can they find the path that leads to inner joy and lasting contentment? Practical Happiness: A Young Man's Guide to a Contented Life offers such counsel. Through short, captivating stories, Bob Schultz has crafted a book to lead young men toward a life of contentment that can only be found by seeking the heart of God. Bob writes with a homespun wisdom born out of experience as well as a quest for a closer walk with God. His goal is to help young men chart a smooth course through life by addressing areas of faith, character, and subtleties of attitude that must be adjusted in order to direct them on the path to inner joy and lasting contentment.

Do you want to cook for a large group of people but are overwhelmed by the prospect? Look no further! Make meals that are quick, classy, and easy to assemble.

The need to feed a crowd is a fact of life for many Christian communities, but it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the American social scene. Google “feed a big group” and you’ll get cute entertainment magazines with suggestions for caviar and soufflés for six, or, on the other hand, a mass of gray casseroles requiring only hamburger, cream of mushroom, and crushed Fritos.

Where are the actually delicious recipes for an actually large group—whether for a regular Bible study or a home group or a school event—where you don’t have to multiply the recipe by 16?

That’s why Rebekah Merkle has put together these soup night recipes with the scaling, menu, tips, and taste-testing fine-tuned from years in her own home.

If you want to take hospitality seriously but aren’t sure how, this is the book for you. It’s packed with no-nonsense practical advice about grocery runs, best kitchen utensils, soup-night logistics, budget- and time-saving tips, and husband-approved soup recipes (with bread and cinnamon rolls to go with).

Soup Night Slapdashery provides the 16 recipes you need to start practicing hospitality for big crowds. (Yes, regular-batch-sized recipes are included as well.) The great news is this won’t take you a week of prep. With this handy cookbook, you can easily feed a crowd with just a few hours of work.

Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life.

Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161–180). A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years ago.

In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.

Christopher McDougall’s journey begins with a story of remarkable athletic prowess: On the treacherous mountains of Crete, a motley band of World War II Resistance fighters—an artist, a shepherd, and a poet—abducted a German commander from the heart of the Axis occupation. To understand how, McDougall retraces their steps across the island that birthed Herakles and Odysseus, and discovers ancient techniques for endurance, sustenance, and natural movement that have been preserved in unique communities around the world.

His search takes us scrambling over rooftops with a Parkour crew in London, foraging for greens with a ballerina in Brooklyn, tossing heavy pieces of driftwood on a Brazilian beach with the creator of MovNat—and, finally, to our own backyards. Natural Born Heroes will inspire readers to unleash the extraordinary potential of the human body and climb, swim, skip, throw, and jump their way to heroic feats.

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, initially published anonymously in 1811. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne as they come of age. They have an older, stingy half-brother, John, and a younger sister, Margaret. The novel follows the three Dashwood sisters as they must move with their widowed mother from the estate on which they grew up, Norland Park. Because Norland is passed down to John, the product of Mr. Dashwood's first marriage, and his young son, the four Dashwood women need to look for a new home. They have the opportunity to rent a modest home, Barton Cottage, on the property of a distant relative, Sir John Middleton. There they experience love, romance, and heartbreak.

“This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell.” It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town's barber.

Orphaned at age ten, Jayber Crow’s acquaintance with loneliness and want have made him a patient observer of the human animal, in both its goodness and frailty.

He began his search as a “pre–ministerial student” at Pigeonville College. There, freedom met with new burdens and a young man needed more than a mirror to find himself. But the beginning of that finding was a short conversation with “Old Grit,” his profound professor of New Testament Greek.

“You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out—perhaps a little at a time.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps.”

“That could be a long time.”

“I will tell you a further mystery,” he said. “It may take longer.”

Wendell Berry’s clear–sighted depiction of humanity’s gifts—love and loss, joy and despair—is seen though his intimate knowledge of the Port William Membership.