Central Kansas Library System

"The inimitable Jane Yolen has teamed up with Barbara Diamond Goldin (a prolific author in her own right) to retell Bible stories from the point of view of twelve women (in nine chapters, as some come in pairs). After each story, there is a reflection "imagine" piece written from the voice of each woman (written by Barbara) and a poem about her (written by Jane). Intermixed with the main text are sidebars called "midrash" in the singular or "midrashim"...

"Hard to believe but true: - The Passover Seder is a Greco-Roman symposium banquet - The Talmud rabbis presented themselves as Stoic philosophers - Synagogue buildings were Roman basilicas - Hellenistic rhetoric professors educated sons of well-to-do Jews - Zeus-Helios is depicted in synagogue mosaics across ancient Israel - The Jewish courts were named after the Roman political institution, the Sanhedrin - In Israel there were synagogues where the...

Until the nineteenth century, most Bible-reading Christians believed the Old and New Testaments represented the Divine Word of God, presented in text without error. But when scholars began to question the authority and accuracy of the Holy Scripture, a group of intrepid explorers set out to discover the historical roots of the Bible. What they found would rock the foundations of Christianity.

Anthropologist Sam Dunn travels Asia, South America, and the Middle East to find how heavy metal music from Europe and North America has influenced, and been transformed by, bands outside the West.