"Very positive and in tune with our needs today." LEO BUSCAGLIA Alan Cohen's story is an inspiration. From his roots as an Orthodox Jew, he took a mind-expanding tour of the teachings of Jesus, Ram Dass, Zen, Jung, the Esalen Institute, and Einstein, to name a few. In this extraordinary collection of lyrical, challenging essays, Cohen synthesizes what he has learned from these masters, and shares his journey with all of us. He discusses overcoming limitations, creating fulfilling relationships, tuning into the flow of life, transformation, finding a personal path, and the greatest gift of all, love. Read it straight through, or essay by essay, for daily meditations on the mysteries of God, love, and the spiritual path.

[Buy this book now only at iUniverse.com bookstore. Order from bookstores everywhere in 4-6 weeks!] Born in 1943. Educated at 22 different schools here and abroad. Bo Banville has had careers that range from radio broadcasting to drug enforcement. He has lived in 28 states and spent seven and a half years in Europe. This ever changing lifestyle has given him a realistic insight and humor about life, living, and love. And where does Bo live now?

With his signature matter-of-fact humor, comedian and musician Dave Hill explores his increasingly close relationship with his recently widowed father in a series of painfully funny essays you will want to read again and again by the fire, at the beach, in a truck stop men’s room, or just about anywhere. It’s your call, really. These days, Dave has just the right amount of spare time to write books at home, preferably in his underwear, but things weren’t always perfect. When he found himself pushing thirty while still living with his parents in Cleveland, unsuited for anything but what an “employment expert” vaguely called a career in “art, music, writing, or entertainment,” he decided to visit some friends in New York for the weekend and never left. However, getting his life together wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped, and even an illegally subletted, rent controlled fifth-floor walk-up studio apartment with a (for the most part) working toilet wasn’t glamorous enough to erase the fact that his four siblings were all married with steady jobs and actual human offspring. And in recent years, Dave’s father had grown tired of loaning him cash and living alone in the empty family home, neither of which made much sense to Dave, but whatever. Through the process of his father’s eventual move to a retirement community, Dave and his dad bonded over the things in life that really matter: scorching-hot rock jams, the gluten allergy craze, eighteen-wheelers, Italian food (pizza and spaghetti), and whatever else could possibly be left after that. Meanwhile, Dave discovered his late-blooming manhood via experiences as disparate and dangerous as a visit to a remote Mexican prison, where he learned that people everywhere love the Eagles, and a martial arts class that pushed his resolve and his groin to their limit. In Dave Hill Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Hill’s voice is sharp, carefree, laced with just the right amount of profanity, and he is—seemingly despite himself—deeply empathetic as he portrays a difficult time in his family’s life and grows up just enough to realize that maybe he and his dad aren’t so different after all.

The church in Canada is in trouble. Media reports suggest that nine thousand churches are likely to close over the next ten years. The United Church of Canada reports closing a congregation a week. The Anglican Church of Canada anticipates closing its last congregation by 2040, and the Roman Catholic Church, Canada's largest religious denomination, reports having closed one-fifth of the tradition's 2,500 congregations. God Doesn't Live Here Anymore traces the story of the church in Canada from its far off historical roots in biblical times, rise to dominance in medieval Europe, role in the colonization of Canada, strained relations with Canada's First Nations, twentieth-century prominence, and the church's dramatic decline and loss of influence entering the twenty-first century. Wood Daly pulls no punches in calling the church to accept responsibility for its own decline, while maintaining hope that resurrection is still possible. The church, as Canadians may know it, might disappear, but for Christians death has never been the end of the story.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore is a powerful, disturbing, and eye-opening dispatch from the homefront that will take its place alongside the works of Antony Lucas, Robert Coles, and Tracy Kidder. Ron Powers' hometown is Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, and therefore birthplace of our image of boyhood itself. Powers returns to Hannibal to chronicle the horrific story of two killings, both committed by minors, and the trials that followed. Seamlessly weaving the narrative of the events in Hannibal with the national withering of the very concept of childhood, Powers exposes a fragmented adult society where children are left adrift, transforming isolation into violence. "Powers's storytelling style keeps such good control over the pacing, readers will know they're not headed for a disappointment at the ending." - Publishers Weekly

This is an empoweringthough at times heartbreakingwork that seeks to encourage others to embrace their inner selves in the face of adversity. It illuminates how we make meaning of our experiences by the stories we tell and how stories of human tragedy can be transformed through the perspective of soul journey with the potential to shift the shape of your life.

Alan Cohen shows us how to approach relationship parting in a way that bestows us with strength and empowerment, rather than pain and sadness. Alan tells us that we should define the success of a relationship by the quality of aliveness we experienced while the relationship thrived, and that although you may no longer have romantic love for each other, you can have a spiritual love that can endure forever. He calls this kind of love "Big Love." "Big Lovers recognize that the key to enjoying a better relationship with your next partner is to appreciate the last one—for both the joys you shared and what you learned through the challenges." If you are ready to move from fear and separateness to mutual empowerment,— if you are ready to grow beyond strife, —this book offers you a new vision and many tools to live by.

Joy Is My Compass is an empowering collection of insights on following one's own true path to "Joy". Alan Cohen tells readers how to devote their attention, heart, and vision to nurture the spirit in life and to hold that vision to live in joy and make happiness a priority rather than a pain.

A bestselling author and Chicken Soup for the Soul contributor offers a wealth of insights on deepening our prayer—and bringing our dreams to life. In a friendly yet profoundly moving way, Alan Cohen guides readers to create real and lasting changes in their health, prosperity, relationships, and spiritual paths. Prayer, we discover, is a magnificent adventure in manifesting miracles and creating the life of our heart’s desire. In this inspiring book, Alan gives you the formula for making your dreams come true, teaching you that enthusiasm generates creativity. His formula is: Desire + Belief = Results. “Desire is the engine that drives spontaneous visioning,” he writes. “When you are enthusiastic, you are linked with the divine. Joy is the pipeline to heaven, and if you keep your channel open and flowing, you will bring heaven to earth." Those new to prayer, as well as experienced practitioners, will be bolstered and illuminated by this fresh and timely text, which takes prayer out of the domain of rote obligation, and delivers it to its rightful place as our most powerful and practical tool to manifest our destiny.