Books about Yearnings 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.

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

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: $20.00 [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: $7.12 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $8.85 [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 cheering seamen of 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, but none of his accomplishments was a solo effort. 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. In so doing, Billingsley creates a compelling mosaic of evolving black-white social relations in the American South as exemplified by this famous figure and his descendants.

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. His distinctive situation instilled in him both an understanding of and desire for freedom. Billingsley underscores the influence of the slaveholders' household as well as Smalls's biological family on the development of the passions and abilities that led Smalls to his bid for freedom in 1862. Likewise, Billingsley charts the critical involvement of Smalls's wife, Hannah, and his extended family of black crewmates in the success of that plan.

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 house that remained at the center of the Smalls family for a century. A founder of the South Carolina Republican Party, Smalls was elected as a delegate to the black majority 1868 Constitutional Convention, which confirmed the right of black men to vote, as well as to the overwhelmingly white Constitutional Convention of 1895, which took away that right. 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. Throughout the trials and triumphs of his public service, Smalls was surrounded by an ever-growing family of supporters. Billingsley illustrates how this support system, coupled with Smalls's 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's 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 selfless investments in freedom and family made by Robert Smalls of South Carolina.

.
Price: $15.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A beautiful, meditative memoir mixed with travel and history, this unique book is the story of one American’s search for a deeper connection to the land. Drawn by a sense that he is missing a critical link to his home in suburban Ohio, John W. Simpson heads for rural Scotland, where he encounters his own family history as well as estate owners and tenant farmers who have centuries-long ties to their land.

As he travels, he meditates on the legacy of the great 19th century conservationist John Muir, who himself developed a complex love of the land when he immigrated from Scotland’s North Sea coast to the fields and forests of Wisconsin. As Simpson physically retraces Muir’s journey he wonders what sense of belonging Muir found on the frontier that modern America, with its strip malls and housing developments, has forgotten. A fascinating story of changing perceptions and values from the Old World to the New, Yearning for the Land shows us just how much roots matter—both in our own lives, and in the many ways time and history, landscape and community are tightly intertwined..
Price: $8.22 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Daniel Clinton's affair with his best friend's beautiful widow, Rebecca, yields more than love. Nearly torn apart by guilt and deceit, both yield to their over-whelming desires and love for each other, forever .
Price: $3.26 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Asserting that much of our contemporalry frustration arises from wrong expectations of the gospel and of life, M. Craig Barnes helps us to see our needs and limitations as gifts--the best opportunities we have to receive God's grace..
Price: $5.90 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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..
Price: $13.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]