First Century

March, 1914. When talented artist Isobel embarks on a journey to Egypt, it's to reunite her best friend, Alice, with her husband, Wilfred—and to use the stunning sights of Cairo as inspiration for her own paintings. A whirlwind romance was the last thing she expected, but when Isobel meets Wilfred's handsome brother, Edward, neither can deny the strong connection between them—especially when unexpected tragedy strikes, leaving them all reeling. Just as they get to grips with their grief, WW1 erupts, and the lovers are forced to separate.

July 1914. Britain is in turmoil as WW1 begins to change the world. While the young men disappear off to foreign battlefields, the women left at home throw themselves into jobs meant for the boys. Hiding her privileged background and her suffragette past, Constance Copeland signs up to be a Clippie on the trams in Staffordshire, despite her parents' disapproval. Constance, known as Connie, soon makes fast friends with lively fellow Clippies, Betty and Jean, as well as growing closer to the charming, gentle Inspector Robert Caldwell.

It wasn't a privileged childhood, but it was a happy one. Sybil and Lizzie Cream, brought up in a fisherman's cottage on the edge of the cold North Sea, were content to leave privilege where it belonged: with their friends the Wintertons. Christina Winterton was the same age as Sybil, and the two girls were inseparable, but it was Lizzie whom Ralph Winterton, three years older, found irresistible. Then war came to East Anglia, and so did Manchester-born Fenn Kitzmann, now of the American Army Air Force.

West Yorkshire, 1914. Newly married to Noah Jackson, Beth is happily content working on her family's market stall while Noah fulfils his dreams of being a teacher. When war erupts, Beth's peaceful life is shattered by events beyond her control. Noah enlists to fight alongside his brothers. A devastating accident occurs that changes all their lives. Once a loving home, Beaumont Farm becomes Beth's responsibility.

He appears once in the New Testament, mentioned only in passing in the Acts of the Apostles; only a few verses in the canon, but for the primitive Church, there is a whole corpus about Simon Magus, its most formidable antagonist, an enemy of such colossal proportions that he deserved to be called "the father of all heresies." His only mention in the Bible occurs at the beginning of the second volume of Luke the Evangelist where he had a minor confrontation with Saint Peter which nonetheless had a happy ending.

Leeds, 1918. When Amy visits her husband, Jude, at Beckett's Park Hospital, he doesn't recognise her. Broken after serving four devastating years in the First World War, Jude is a shadow of the man he once was. Can he ever again be the man Amy knew and loved? Barnsborough, 1912. The first time Jude and Amy meet, the connection between them is instant and electric. While a librarian's assistant and a collier might not be the most conventional pair, the two come together over a love of books that quickly turns into more.

Joseph ben Joseph's family fractures after Jesus' crucifixion and his mother's choice to stay with his brother's followers, despite the looming threat of death. Joseph's older brother, claiming to have seen Jesus alive, insists on remaining in Jerusalem to join the disciples. But Joseph, not being the patriarch, is powerless to lead the family back to the safety of Nazareth.

What does it mean that the Psalms are the prayer book of the people? Rocking Like It's All Intermezzo: Twenty-First-Century Psalm Responsorials is one such person's prayer book. Using familiar refrains as their starting points, the poems attempt a balance between how the psalmist understood God's faithfulness and how the poet's lived experience requires revised understanding in some places, renewed commitment in others. In addition to an insightful foreword by acclaimed poet Sofia M. Starnes, these 64 poems tell of an intimate, honest reorientation to God's promises.

Horace Busby was one of LBJ's most trusted advisors; their close working and personal relationship spanned twenty years. In The Thirty-First of March he offers an indelible portrait of a president and a presidency at a time of crisis.

The Great War of 1914-1918 confronted the United States with one of the most wrenching crises in the nation's history. It also left a residue of disruption and disillusion that spawned an even more ruinous conflict scarcely a generation later. Over Here is the single most comprehensive discussion of the impact of World War I on American society.

Galatians tackles the tough subject of walking in faith by the power of the Holy Spirit versus striving according to the law. He reminds this church of how they began in Christ and encourages them to finish in him as well, not returning to the rules and legalism of the Pharisees. In A 21st-Century Version of Galatians, Dundy goes through a verse-by-verse analysis of the entire book. He does a side-by-side comparison of his version with the World English Bible so that the listener can dig deep to mine the rich meaning of the text.