The Price of Privilege Lib/E: How Parental Pressure and Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

Karen Armstrong

The History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest

"Strange as it may seem, the idea of 'God' developed in a market economy in a spirit of aggressive capitalism," Karen Armstrong asserts in her fascinating work A History of God. Armstrong considers herself a "historian of ideas," and with this broad view she gives a compelling account of the correspondences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the historical, philosophical, intellectual, and social developments through the ages that both shaped them and were shaped by them. Religion is "highly pragmatic," Armstrong finds. Any particular idea of God must work for the people who develop it. Consequently, as the times have changed, so have our ideas about God. "Understanding the ever-changing ideas of God in the past and their relevance and usefulness in their time," she says, "will help us to develop a new concept for the future." Today an increasing number of people have difficulty with the idea of a God that behaves as a larger version of themselves. Armstrong sees this as inevitable, and welcomes believers to a notion of God that "works for us in the empirical age."

Jimmy Evans

Marriage on the Rock

Society requires years of preparation for almost any significant career endeavor, but demands no real preparation for one of the most crucial undertakings in life: marriage. In an age of disposable marriage and information overload, where can couples turn for real answers that will make their relationships work? Only to God. Marriage on the Rock clearly details God's principles that will turn disillusioned, divorce-bound marriages into satisfying dream relationships.

F.Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

This deceptively simple work, Fitzgerald's best known, was hailed by critics as capturing the spirit of the generation. In Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald embodies some of America's strongest obsessions: wealth, power, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. Unabridged. 6 CDs.