Books about Yearning from Amazon.com

There is a divine restlessness in the human heart, our eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are.In this exquisitely crafted and inspirational book, John O'Donohue, author of the bestseller Anam Cara, explores the most basic of human desires - the desire to belong, a desire that constantly draws us toward new possibilities of self-discovery, friendship, and creativity.

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Price: $7.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award
Chosen as one of "The 10 Best Spiritual Books of 2006" by Spirituality and Health magazine

Rabbi Irwin Kula explores desire in spiritual life. Rather than leading us astray, our longings are gateways to self discovery. Our yearnings, once understood, can lead us to discover an expansive vision of God or a wider reality. And when we embrace even our most painful or taboo desires, we can love more deeply and live more fully.

The Biblical authors wrote about characters who, rather than leading perfect lives, actually struggled with their longings for success, love, sex, and happiness. Through interpreting those stories and other spiritual traditions, as well as exploring his own desires and those of regular people, Rabbi Kula shows that "The more we allow ourselves to unfold, the less likely we are to unravel. The more we dive into our desires, the more exquisite life becomes.".
Price: $7.10 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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This book explores the history of mathematics from the perspective of the creative tension between common sense and the "impossible" as the author follows the discovery or invention of new concepts that have marked mathematical progress: - Irrational and Imaginary Numbers - The Fourth Dimension - Curved Space - Infinity and others The author puts these creations into a broader context involving related "impossibilities" from art, literature, philosophy, and physics. By imbedding mathematics into a broader cultural context and through his clever and enthusiastic explication of mathematical ideas the author broadens the horizon of students beyond the narrow confines of rote memorization and engages those who are curious about the place of mathematics in our intellectual landscape..
Price: $23.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

F. Enzio Busche, emeritus member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, was born in Germany in 1930, three years before Hitler's rise to power. Fifteen years later, when World War II ended, Enzio was a prisoner of war, having been drafted into the German army at age fourteen The war left Enzio with many questions: Is there a God? What is the purpose of life? What happens after death? In time, he learned the answers. "Yearning for the Living God" is a collection of Elder Busche's experiences - both before and after his conversion - and an account of the life-changing awakening that can come to all who search for truth in this world..
Price: $25.43 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Longing is the core of mystery Longing itself brings the cure."-Rumi

In every tradition, saints and poets speak of the soul's search for the beloved, the seeker's yearning for the divine. This holy longing, a secret feeling with many disguises, leads us to pursue religious discipleship, spiritual practice, romantic union, or an ideal community. It guides us to timeless wisdom and transcendent experience.

But it also can go awry, when we misplace it onto objects, such as food, alcohol, drugs, or sex, believing that they will satisfy our craving. Or when we misplace it onto an authoritarian personality, believing that he or she will meet our unmet needs. If this teacher or priest abuses power, we encounter the shadow side of spiritual life. Whether the abuse is sexual, financial, or emotional coercion, we may feel forsaken and lose faith, even in God.

The Holy Longing tells the stories of teachers in many traditions-Sufi poet Rumi, Hindu master Ramakrishna, Christian saint Catherine of Siena-whose lives unfolded as they followed their longing. And it tells the tales of many ordinary people-Catholic believers, students of Zen and TM, followers of Trungpa Rinpoche and Rajneesh-and their encounters with spiritual shadow. Finally, it offers wise counsel for rekindling the flame of faith-moving through the shadow to the light-by reclaiming sacred parts of the self that were lost along the way.

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Price: $10.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

On May 13, 1862, the enslaved African American Robert Smalls (1839-1915) commandeered a Confederate warship, the Planter, from Charleston harbor and piloted the vessel to the Union blockade, thus securing his place in the annals of Civil War heroics. Slave, pilot, businessman, statesman, U.S. congressman - Smalls played many roles en route to becoming an American icon. Sociologist Andrew Billingsley offers the first biography of Smalls to assess the influence of his families - black and white, past and present - on his life and enduring legend. Born a slave in Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls was raised with his master's family and grew up amid an odd balance of privilege and bondage. Billingsley underscores the influence of the slaveholders' household as well as Smalls' biological family on the development of the passions and abilities that led Smalls to his bid for freedom in 1862. Smalls served with distinction in the Union forces at the helm of the Planter. After the war he returned to Beaufort and bought the home of his former masters. A founder of the South Carolina Republican Party, Smalls was elected as a delegate to the black majority 1868 Constitutional Convention as well as to the overwhelmingly white Constitutional Convention of 1895. Between those two events, he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, the state senate, and five times to the U.S. Congress. Billingsley illustrates how Smalls' support system, coupled with his dogged resilience, empowered him for political success. Today three branches of the Smalls family remain: the descendants of his daughter with first wife, Hannah; of Hannah's two daughters from a previous marriage whom Smalls adopted; and of his son with his second wife, Annie. Writing of subsequent generations of Smalls' family, Billingsley delineates the evolving patterns of opportunity, challenge, and change that have been the hallmarks of the African American experience thanks in no small part to the investments in freedom and family made by Robert Smalls of South Carolina..
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Desperate to escape her father and brutal home, Delia McQuaid responds to an ad for a mail-order bride and is immediately entranced by Dr. Ty Savitch, whose promise to deliver a wife to his neighbor becomes compromised by his own passions. Reprint..
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