Fiction

When Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves embark upon a dangerous quest to reclaim the hoard of gold stolen from them by the evil dragon Smaug, Gandalf the wizard suggests an unlikely accomplice: Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming Hobbit dwelling in peaceful Hobbiton.

Along the way, the company faces trolls, goblins, giant spiders, and worse. But as they journey from the wonders of Rivendell to the terrors of Mirkwood and beyond, Bilbo will find that there is more to him than anyone--himself included--ever dreamed. Unexpected qualities of courage and cunning, and a love of adventure, propel Bilbo toward his great destiny . . . a destiny that waits in the dark caverns beneath the Misty Mountains, where a twisted creature known as Gollum jealously guards a precious magic ring.

This boxed set includes:
THE HOBBIT
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
THE TWO TOWERS
THE RETURN OF THE KING

Beginning with Dante's liberation from Hell, Purgatory relates his ascent, accompanied by Virgil, of the Mount of Purgatory - a mountain of nine levels, formed from rock forced upwards when God threw Satan into depths of the earth. As he travels through the first seven levels, Dante observes the sinners who are waiting for their release into Paradise, and through these encounters he is himself transformed into a stronger and better man. For it is only when he has learned from each of these levels that he can ascend to the gateway to Heaven: the Garden of Eden. The second part of one of the greatest epic poems, Purgatory is an enthralling Christian allegory of sin, redemption and ultimate enlightenment.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

In this classic Catholic novel, Bernanos movingly recounts the life of a young French country priest who grows to understand his provincial parish while learning spiritual humility himself. Awarded the Grand Prix for Literature by the Academie Francaise, The Diary of a Country Priest was adapted into an acclaimed film by Robert Bresson. A book of the utmost sensitiveness and compassion...it is a work of deep, subtle and singularly encompassing art. -- New York Times Book Review (front page).

Kit stared at his fellow questors. "Is this it?"

It started with small, seemingly insignificant wrinkles in time: A busy bridge suddenly disappears, spilling cars into the sea. A beast from another realm roams modern streets. Napoleon's army appears in 1930s Damascus ready for battle. But that's only the beginning as entire realities collide and collapse.

The questors are spread throughout the universe. Mina is stuck on a plain of solid ice, her only companion an angry cave lion named Baby. Tony and Gianni are monitoring the cataclysmic reversal of the cosmic expansion--but coming up short on answers. And Burleigh is languishing in a dreary underground dungeon--his only hope of survival the very man he tried to kill.

Kit and Cass are back in the Stone Age trying to reach the Spirit Well. But an enormous yew tree has grown over the portal, effectively cutting off any chance of return. Unless someone can find a solution--and fast--all Creation will be destroyed in the universal apocalypse known as The End of Everything.

In the final volume of the fantastic Bright Empires series, Stephen R. Lawhead brings the multi-stranded tale to a stunning and immensely satisfying conclusion.

Mitch Albom has done it again with this moving memoir of love and loss. You can't help but fall for Chika. A page-turner that will no doubt become a classic." --Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club and The Art of Memoir

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tuesdays With Morrie comes Mitch Albom's most personal story to date: an intimate and heartwarming memoir about what it means to be a family and the young Haitian orphan whose short life would forever change his heart.

Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.

With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika's arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, "No one in Haiti can help you with."

Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika's boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.

Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed--a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.

Is America heading to judgment? What lies ahead? Discover what no book has ever revealed . . . until now!

Are the unprecedented crises of our times, the signs and warnings of coming judgment?

Does an ancient mystery hold the secret to the events of our times, and the future of America and the world?

Is this mystery even behind the shakings that have now overtaken the world and America?

How much time do we have left?

In 2012, Jonathan Cahn caused a worldwide sensation with the release of his first book and massive bestseller The Harbinger. It was hailed as 'stunning, ' 'prophetic' 'mind-blowing, ' and 'astonishing.' Cahn followed it with bestseller after bestseller but he has always held off on writing a sequel. But now, for the first time, Cahn opens up what could not be unlocked before - the mysteries that couldn't be revealed until the present time, the manifestations that have taken place since The Harbinger came out and up to the present hour, and the mysteries of what is yet to come.

Ever since The Harbinger was released, people have been asking...

As in the first book, the mysteries and revelations of The Harbinger II are completely real and are determining the course of world events to this day. And the mysteries are, likewise, revealed through a narrative. In The Harbinger II, the reader will witness the return of Nouriel, Ana Goren, and the mysterious figure known as 'the prophet.' The prophet will now continue the revelation from where it left off and open up mysteries as stunning and mind-blowing as the first. As in the prophet's first appearance, the revelations will be unlocked, one by one, through the giving of ancient seals, but also through dreams, and a little girl as mysterious as the prophet. In The Harbinger II the reader will be taken on a mysterious and epic journey to uncover the new revelations: from an island in the waters of New England, to the steps of the Supreme Court, to the top of the tower at Ground Zero, to a primeval forest, to the House of Faces, to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The Harbinger II will also reveal the answer and the keys we each need to have for the days that lie ahead.

After reading The Harbinger II, you will never see the world the same way again. Prepare to be blown away!

When young Waljan of the Wood is forced to move to a new home in the city, his first instinct is to resist everything about the change. However, it isn't long before his new circumstances put him on a collision course with the evil lurking in Mortinburg, as well as his own true identity . . . an identity that will only become clear if he can somehow discover what lies beyond a mysterious, unassailable wall just outside the city.

In this magnificent and stirring novel, Louis de Wohl turns his famed narrative skill to the story of the soldier and merchant's son who might have been right-hand man to a king ... and who became instead the most beloved of all saints. Set against the tempestuous background of 13th Century Italy and Egypt, here is the magnificent and inspiring story of Francis Bernardone, the brash, pleasure-loving young officer who was to become immortalized as St. Francis of Assisi.

The story teems with action, pageantry and intrigue with finely conceived characters-the beautiful, saintly Clare, Frederick, the hawk-faced King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, the Sultan Al Kamil, Pope Innocent III. The scene shifts from Assisi, Rome and Sicily to the deadly sands of Egypt.

This book was made into a feature film by 20th Century Fox entitled Francis of Assisi, now available on video from Ignatius Press.

Ethan McQuarry is a young lighthouse keeper on a tiny island, the rugged outcropping of easternmost Cape Breton Island on the Atlantic Ocean. A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent vigilant, performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.

He cherishes his solitude and is grateful that his interactions with human beings are rare. Even so, he is haunted by his aloneness in the world and by a feeling that his life is meaningless. His courage, his integrity, his love of the sea and wildlife, of practical skills and of learning are, in the end, not enough. He is faced with internal storms and sometimes literal storms of terrifying power.

From time to time he becomes aware that messengers are sent to him from what he calls the awakeness in existence, the listeningness. But he cannot at first recognize them as messengers nor understand what they might be telling him, until he finds himself caught up in catastrophic events, and begins to see the mysterious undercurrents of reality--and the hidden face of love.

They that go down to the sea in ships, trading upon the waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.
- Psalm 107: 23