157. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 5 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

158. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 5 - part 2 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

159. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 5 - part 3 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

160. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 6 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

161. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 7 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

162. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 8 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

163. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 9 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

164. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 10 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

165. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 11 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

166. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 12 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

167. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 13 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

168. A Book of Angels by Marigold Hunt, Chapter 13 - Part 2 (Sophia Institute Press, 2004).

Fr. Chad interviews Greg Hatrak, the new bookstore manager at St. Vladimir's Seminary, about some exciting new developments in the school's publishing division.

Dean The Very Rev. Dr. John Behr, author of academic, popular, and spiritual works, presented the keynote address at this year's Education Day at St. Vladimir's Seminary. Fr. John highlighted the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and books, and described how the development of the internet has changed the way people read.

Dn. Michael begins a new series on living "in, but not of" the world. He is using four texts from the St. Vladimir's Popular Patristics series. This week he covers C.S. Lewis's introduction to the St. Athanasius work On the Incarnation.

Today Martha describes a little red book from her collection. No, no, not that one… this one has recipes for a Dog’s Nose and a Tuxedo and serves as a metaphor for the good things the Church has to offer.

the appeals court ruled that, despite being a nonprofit and no evidence of market harm, its implementation of Controlled Digital Lending isn't fair use #

in some cases, Meta is automatically creating the pages #

I have just finished reading Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consumed with Individualism and Identity, by my friend Carl R. Trueman. Dr. Trueman is professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College, and a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (which, despite the title, has no connection with our own Eastern Orthodox Church).

Fr. Apostolos Hill delivers a short homily on what we will all write in the New Year on the pages of the books of our lives.

Bobby interviews Patricia Colling Egan, author of A Book of Hours: Meditations on the Traditional Christian Hours of Prayer.

Bobby interviews Katherine Hyde, an acquisitions editor at Ancient Faith Publishing, about the new Ancient Faith Prayer Book.

On another live version of Ex Libris, Bobby Maddex interviews Melinda Johnson, the author of The Barn and the Book.

Dr. Christine Mangala Frost has lectured widely on comparative religion and is a published novelist with two books to her name exploring the consequences of religious belief for human action. She is currently working on a study comparing and contrasting Hindu and the Christian Orthodox beliefs. Here she presents a reflection on the theme of theodicy in relation to the Book of Job.

Dr. Albert Rossi introduces his new book published by Ancient Faith Publishing titled All is Well. Dr. Albert S. Rossi is a licensed clinical psychologist and Christian educator who has spoken and written widely on these topics. Dr. Rossi was a member of the SCOBA Commission on Contemporary Social and Moral Issues for six years. He is currently Director of Field Education and serves as the resident clinical psychologist at St. Vladimir’s Seminary. He is the author of Becoming a Healing Presence (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2014) and hosts the podcast of the same name on Ancient Faith Radio.

In this episode of Down the Road, CrossRoad Director Mary Long discusses Facebook, personhood, and community with CrossRoad alumnus Jonathan Resmini.

Bobby Maddex interviews Patricia Colling Egan, author of the new Conciliar Press book A Book of Hours: Meditations on the Traditional Christian Hours of Prayer.

Angela Hays, the woman behind the new second edition of Taste and See: An American Orthodox Cookbook, needs your recipes. Bobby Maddex talks to her about this and more on a new Ancient Faith Presents.

Fr. Chrysostomos Onyekakeyah (priest-monk) of the Orthodox Diocese of Nigeria (Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa) tells us about a need to publish two Orthodox books in his country and how we all can help. We have set a goal of raising $2,400 to publish 1,000 copies each of two books. One is titled Sacraments and Sacramentals: An Orthodox Approach; and the other is Orthodox Faith in Catechism. Donate HERE and be sure to designate your gift for "Nigeria."

Bobby Maddex interviews Timm Wenger, the Ancient Faith Store web manager, and the manager of the Orthodox Christian Ebooks website, which is a new service of Ancient Faith Ministries.

Bobby Maddex interviews Paula Marchman with the GOA Family Life Ministry in Atlanta and Edna King, one of the individuals behind Woven: An Interactive Book for the Modern Teenage Girl on Orthodox Christianity.

Join siblings Bobby Maddex and Molly Sabourin as they glean spiritual insights from modern literature. Listen to this introduction to learn more about the book club schedule, how the podcast will operate, and the ways in which you can participate. The first book is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, and the discussion will take place one month from now—on October 7, 2019. Click here to purchase the book, view the whole book list, and leave a message for Molly and Bobby. Get reading!

Jane G. Meyer is the Children's' Book Editor for Ancient Faith Publishing, and she joins us to talk about the importance of Orthodox books for children as well as an opportunity to help support new publications.

The White House sides with Israel's ground assault of Lebanon while much of the world calls for a ceasefire. / Al Jazeera

Meanwhile, Iran is said to be preparing to launch a ballistic-missile attack. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

A long profile of Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose new book criticizes Israel and the corrupting influence of power. "I'm sad, but I was so enraged." / New York Magazine

Things to watch for in tonight's Vance-Walz debate. / Wake Up to Politics

Helene slamming a small town in North Carolina may disrupt the global supply chain for microchips. / NPR

A nuclear plant in Michigan will be the first in US history to restart. / CNBC

Your weekly white paper: "A systematic review about similarities in dog-human dyads." / Science Direct

A fascinating survey of how religious believers are using new technologies in their daily practices. / rest of world

An audio dive into Google's new niche product Notebook, which can turn a bunch of PDFs into a convincing podcast. / The New York Times [+]

See also: Barry C. Lynn on "Liberal democracy's last stand against Big Tech." / Harper's

From July, have you seen the trend of new books using multi-panel illustrations on their covers? They're called "bento books." / I Need a Book Cover

A celebrated new short story collection is about "people who just can't hang." / The New Yorker

Also, have you noticed worse service at restaurants lately? For the sake of society, that might be a good thing. / Economist Writing Every Day

See also: Britain experiences a rise in "zebra striping," where pub patrons alternate between alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer. / Semafor

Japan's smaller museums are praised for their elegance. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

Photographs of Japanese forests shimmering with fireflies. / Colossal

View Post →

On the Sunday before the Nativity, Fr. Pat looks for the Biblical David in two works of Western art: Michelangelo’s David and Rembrandt’s sketch of David in prayer. The works can be seen here: Michelangelo's "David" and here: Rembrandt's "David in Prayer"

Advent begins in just seven days! What are some books that would be great to read during the fast or to give as gifts? PLUS, a sweet little give away!

The Army medic of 20 years says carrying the book was a "lovely end" to her military career.

Indigenous Australians says the book is damaging and stereotypes first nation people.

A new booking system has been put in place in Norfolk’s waste recycling centres.

One of the more persistent criticisms I get these days is that by being public about my really rather normal experience of sex work, I am "silencing" people who label themselves a victims.

I'm not going to rehash the particular arguments regarding Happy Hookers vs. Abused Victims here, in part because Maggie McNeill has already done it. Suffice it to say that people who have read my writing know my experience of sex work, while useful, positive, and not abusive, was not quite the shopping-and-shoe-buying fantasy critics paint it as. But then most people who think that about me have never encountered my writing firsthand and are instead basing their impressions off a half-remembered advert featuring Billie Piper's tits. I understand. It's easy to get confused.

But it did give me a moment of pause: is my writing crowding out other voices in the market? I decided to examine this further.

Since many people purport to tell the story of sex workers for them, I excluded books that were either not written by or not straight biographies of a particular sex worker. I also excluded all that were fiction (such as my own Playing the Game) or deal with post-sex work life (such as Lily Burana's I Love a Man in Uniform).

Anyway, here are the results:


As you can see, my books are outnumbered by hooker memoirs that predate mine (Tracy Quan and Xaviera Hollander in particular). Outspoken strippers also chalk up plenty of contributions to the genre.

But outnumbering all of us by far are the 'misery memoirs' about prostitution. (Don't get angry at me for the sweeping generalisation. That is what the genre actually is called.) There are, to use the technical term, fucking shedloads of these books. You'll notice more than a few bestsellers in that stack as well. These were just the ones I could fit into the graphic; there are dozens upon dozens more. Many if not most of which were published after my books first came out.

It's probably fair to conclude that not only has my writing not stopped others from contributing their experience to the general debate on sex work, but that you're actually more likely to get noticed if you're unhappy with prostitution than generally satisfied with it.

With the swirling vortex of Kristof/trafficking/concern porn making the rounds, in fact, now might just be the right time to do it. If you were of a mind to write a book like that.

I encourage people with real firsthand views on the topic, whatever they are, to write. In fact moreso if you are not white, or not a cis woman, or not from the US or Western Europe. Women who look and sound approximately like me are already pretty well represented in the hallowed halls of sex worker lit. Let's diversify it all over the damn place until the orientalists and anti-migration-disguised-as-anti-trafficking types have to eat every last one of their words.

Just so long as we all understand that there is no such thing as one story of sex work - they are as diverse as the people in it. My story is my story. Your story is your story. None of us speak for all sex workers. And be honest. As Bob Dylan memorably put it “If you live outside the law you must be honest.” So long as we are all on the level, then getting as many true voices out there as possible is no bad thing.

Now back to the critics...

For pity's sake don't come crying to me if you're not as popular as you like. As the objective evidence shows, it categorically is not down to me whether or not people want to read your writing.

As regards writing as a career, it is dangerous to assume I or anyone else is getting "vastly rich" off of writing (as one bitter soul recently accused). Many people seem to think that writing a book, even a bestselling one, is a ticket to financial freedom and nets far beyond what even your common-or-garden escort can potentially make. I hate to break it to the dreamers, but that is not so.

If it was, do you think I'd still be writing? Hell, no. I'd be kicking back with J.K. Rowling and E.L. James in our secret volcano fortress warming my toes on a fire built by our minions entirely out of £50 notes and cackling madly. As opposed to the reality - sitting in my home office in a very average house in one of the poorest areas of the country. I'm not bankrolled by any grant-grabbing NGOs, my personal appearances usually only cover expenses, and nuisance legal threats from people with a lot of time on their hands cost more than all my living expenses combined. I've done better than most by writing and am still a long way off being a millionaire.

As it turns out, I hear the person who made that accusation supposedly comes from family money herself and spends her time as a dilettante poetess. If that's true, well, good luck with that. Whatever works amirite?

Best of luck, former fellow hos. This is not exactly the road less traveled but is no less bumpy for it.

1. British writer Samantha Harvey wins Booker Prize for space novel Orbital  Al Jazeera English
2. Samantha Harvey’s ‘beautiful and ambitious’ Orbital wins Booker prize  The Guardian
3. Samantha Harvey wins the Booker prize for “Orbital”  The Economist
4. British writer Samantha Harvey’s space-station novel ‘Orbital’ wins 2024 Booker Prize  CNN
5. Booker Prize Is Awarded to Samantha Harvey’s ‘Orbital’  The New York Times

By Hasan Basri Cifci[1] In the world of 2014, the Commission of Facebook/WhatsApp merger case[2] concluded that integration and interoperation of Facebook and WhatsApp were unfeasible. However, Facebook integrated its three subsidiaries (WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook) under its brand in

The purpose of this paper was to explore the current and potential use of Facebook for learning purposes by Jordanian university students. The paper attempted to compare such use with other uses of Facebook. Further, the paper investigated Jordanian university students’ attitudes towards using Facebook as a formal academic tool, through the use of course-specific Facebook groups. To that end, quantitative data were collected from a sample of 451 students from three Jordanian public universities. Findings indicated that the vast majority of Jordanian students had Facebook accounts, which echoes its popularity amongst Jordanian youth compared to other types of online social networking sites. While both “social activities” and “entertainment” were the primary motivators for Jordanian students to create and use Facebook accounts, a growing number of them were using Facebook for academic purposes too. Further, Jordanian students had a positive attitude toward the use of “Facebook groups” as an educational tool for specific courses, and under specific conditions. Based on its findings, the paper provides suggestions for Jordanian higher institutions to invest in the application of Facebook as a formal academic tool.