Most investors are told their retirement future depends on Wall Street—stocks, bonds, and index funds. But there's a broader landscape of opportunities hidden in plain sight.Wealth Beyond Wall Street is an essential field manual for anyone curious about how retirement accounts can be used in more diverse ways. Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience educating over 100,000 investors, John Bowens brings together the key information, rules, and real-world examples behind self-directe...

Religions in Practice provides a comprehensive and primarily theme-based overview for students of the anthropology of religion. Whilst covering traditional topics such as magic, witchcraft, and spiritual healing, the book addresses key contemporary subjects including migration, transnationalism, nationalism, secularism, and law. It offers an issues-oriented perspective on everyday religious behaviors and examines small-scale societies as well as major, established religions. Throu...

On British Islam examines the history and everyday workings of Islamic institutions in Britain, with a focus on shariʿa councils. These councils concern themselves with religious matters, especially divorce. They have a higher profile in Britain than in other Western nations. Why? Taking a historical and ethnographic look at British Islam, John Bowen examines how Muslims have created distinctive religious institutions in Britain and how shariʿa councils interpret and apply Islamic...

In this powerful, but accessible new study, John Bowen draws on a full range of work in social anthropology to present Islam in ways that emphasise its constitutive practices, from praying and learning to judging and political organising. Starting at the heart of Islam - revelation and learning in Arabic lands - Bowen shows how Muslims have adapted Islamic texts and traditions to ideas and conditions in the societies in which they live. Returning to key case studies in Asia, Africa and Wes...

In this rich account of a Muslim society in highland Sumatra, Indonesia, John Bowen describes how men and women debate among themselves ideas of what Islam is and should be--as it pertains to all areas of their lives, from work to worship. Whereas many previous anthropological studies have concentrated on the purely local aspects of culture, this book captures and analyzes the tension between the local and universal in everyday life. Current religious differences among the Gayo stem from d...

'It is no good any longer having any opinion upon anything' After the death of his wife, the handsome politician Phineas Finn returns from Ireland to the parliamentary fray. In his absence the political and social world has subtly changed, parties and policies no longer fixed and advancement dependent upon scheming and alliances. His private life lays him open to the scandal-mongering press, and the wild accusations of an unhinged rival; but much more than his reputation i...

'Mr Slope flattered himself that he could out-manoeuvre the lady...he did not doubt of ultimate triumph.' Barchester Towers (1857) was the book that made Trollope's reputation and it remains his most popular and enjoyable novel. The arrival of a new bishop in Barchester, accompanied by his formidable wife and ambitious chaplain, Obadiah Slope, sets the town in turmoil as Archdeacon Grantly declares 'War, war, internecine war!' on Bishop Proudie and his supporters....

Sorting out a village shattered by a series of poison pen letters is just up Hetty Wainthropp's street, as is a runaway couple, a blackmailing medium and finding out the betrayer at a refuge for battered wives.

Considered by many to be Dickens' finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book's narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character.From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens' most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip's good-hear...

In more than forty years of ministry, Harold Percy has sought to waken a slumbering church by reminding it of its true calling—to imaginative evangelism, faithful discipleship, and innovative leadership. As a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, and as founding Director of the Wycliffe College Institute of Evangelism, Harold has challenged and encouraged leaders in a range of denominations across Canada through articles and books, conferences and workshops. This books engages in live...

Vincent Donovan is best known as the author of the influential bestseller, Christianity Rediscovered (1978). This new book contains the monthly letters he wrote home from Tanzania between 1957 and 1973. These letters give us previously unknown stories: how Donovan met Julius Nyerere, first prime minister of Tanzania; how a group of Protestants attempted to kill him; of his early disastrous attempt to hear confession in Swahili; of the relationship between Donovan's work and Vatican II; and...

The late 19th century saw a dynamic growth of contacts between Western countries and the Far East. Along with the increase in travel came a wave of educational opportunities for Americans and Europeans to gain first-hand experience of living in countries such as China, India, and Japan. Likewise, adventurous individuals from the Orient made their way to the West.      Scholars, politicians, and business people became experts in their adapted culture. Some learned the native language...