"A revelatory account of how Christian monks identified distraction as a fundamental challenge, and how their efforts to defeat it can inform ours, more than a millennium later"-- "The digital era is beset by distraction: we fantasize about escaping our screen, and recapturing a world with less noise. Kreiner demonstrates that the attempts of monks to contemplate the divine order and its ethical requirements were all-consuming, and their battles...

In the winter of 1271, death stalks the corridors of Wynethorpe Castle on the Welsh border. When the Grim Reaper touches the beloved grandson of the castle lord, Baron Adam sends for his daughter, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, and her subinfirmarian, Sister Anne, to save the child with their prayers and healing talents. Escorting them to the remote fortress is Brother Thomas, an unwilling monk fighting his private demons. Death may be denied once in...

In a radical vision for the future of Christianity, American Conservative columnist Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches are hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo-Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton...

Having worked to establish laws that protect the interests of the crown in 1537, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar-general, enlists fellow reformer and lawyer Matthew Shardlake to investigate a commissioner's murder, which may be tied to an impending rebellion.

"Novice nun Viridiana does her utmost to maintain her Catholic principles, but her lecherous uncle and a motley assemblage of paupers force her to confront the limits of her idealism"--Container. When a young woman who is preparing to become a nun suddenly inherits her wealthy uncle's estate, her attempts to improve the lot of the less fortunate by making her newfound riches available to them backfire.

Sybella locates her fellow assassin and novitiate of the convent of Saint Mortain, only to discover that Genevieve has made a lethal mistake, and there are far-reaching consequences for loved ones entanged in French court intrigues. Hoping to find an ally from the convent of Saint Mortain and Death's Vengeance on Earth, Sybella instead discovers Genevieve has also been misled and misused by the former abbess. They form an uneasy trust born of desperation...

High in the Himalayas, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. Built for the General's harem, laughter and music once floated out over the gorge. But now it sits abandoned; windswept and haunting. The General's son bestows the palace to the Sisters of Mary, and 'the House of Women', as it was once known, becomes the Convent of St Faith. Close to the Heavens, the nuns feel inspired, working fervently to establish their school and hospital....