American Buddhism

Set against the Rocky Mountains, this emotionally charged Western noir explores themes of fathers and sons, men and masculinity, and religion and spirituality through the lens of an unimaginable act—one best friend murdering the other “Langsfeld’s writing hits like a brushfire: sparks that...

A globe-spanning epic novel about a fractured New York family reckoning with the harms of the past and confronting humanity’s uncertain future, from award-winning author Jess Row For fifteen years, the Wilcoxes have been a family in name only. Though never the picture of happiness, they once...

Help your child understand that they have the power to make others feel seen, included, and loved—with every kind choice they make. What Does It Mean to Be Kind? isn’t just a story, it’s a spark. With simple, powerful moments and vibrant illustrations, this award-winning picture book helps...

~Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for the best LGBT YA novel of 2017~ An unforgettable story of two girls navigating the unknowable waters of identity, millennial anxiety, and first love, from the acclaimed author of The Mystery of Hollow Places. In Savannah Espinoza’s small New Mexico...

Perfect for fans of Ben Philippe and Mary H. K. Choi, this charming, insightful YA novel follows two high school students who form a complicated, ground-shifting bond while filming a movie. High school junior Felix Ma wants to prove to his parents that he’s not a quitter. After crashing out of...

HBO’s Insecure meets Dazed and Confused in this messy, tender YA novel about a friendship breakup, set against the backdrop of a chaotic night at a music festival, from rising talent Tracy Badua. Jana Rubio and her best friend, Maddy Parsons, have an epic senior year finale queued up...

Today, many Jewish Americans are embracing a dual religious identity, practicing Buddhism while also staying connected to their Jewish roots. This book tells the story of Judaism's encounter with Buddhism in the United States, showing how it has given rise to new contemplative forms within American Judaism - and shaped the way Americans understand and practice Buddhism. Taking listeners from the 19th century to today, Emily Sigalow traces the history of these two traditions in America and explains how they came together.

From acclaimed author Lydia Kang comes a funny, moving YA novel following a third-generation Korean American teen who goes to extreme and hilarious lengths to connect more with her Korean heritage, perfect for fans of Maurene Goo and Rachel Lynn Solomon. Jane Choi is a typical Nebraskan teen—a...

The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this pathbreaking account, Duncan Ryuken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation's history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American.

Shaku's eminently reasonable worldview and his skillful exposition of a truly universal definition of divinity and its inevitable necessity are both compelling and difficult to refute. In particular, this collection of discourses probes deeply and revealingly into the fundamental questions that occupy the minds of believers and unbelievers alike: why men cultivate religion in the first place and what the secret of its persistent vitality is.

From one of the country’s most respected religion reporters, a paradigm-shifting discussion of how the Religious Left is actually the moral compass that has long steered America’s political debates, including today. Since the ascendancy of the Religious Right in the 1970s, common wisdom...

This pioneering and pathbreaking book brings together the rich spirituality of Black literary giants with the profound spirituality of the Buddhist tradition. Never before have we been informed and transformed with this unprecedented encounter—and our catastrophic times require it! —Dr...

Mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often whitewash and invisibilize the diverse, inclusive, and intersectional communities that lie at the heart of American Buddhism. Be the Refuge is both critique and celebration, calling out the erasure of Asian-American Buddhists while uplifting the complexity and nuance of their authentic stories and vital, thriving communities. Drawn from in-depth interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group, Be the Refuge is the first book to center young Asian-American Buddhists' own voices.

Thirty years ago, "mindfulness" was a Buddhist principle mostly obscure to the west. Today, it is a popular cure-all for Americans' daily problems. A massive and lucrative industry promotes mindfulness in every aspect of life, however mundane or unlikely: Americans of various faiths (or none at all) practice mindful eating, mindful sex, mindful parenting, mindfulness in the office, mindful sports, mindfulness-based stress relief and addiction recovery, and hire mindful divorce lawyers.

Appalachian Zen describes a journey we all take, one that Buddhism calls "seeking our true home." Edgy, lyrical, and lovingly rendered, this book recounts how a kid from a Pennsylvania mill-town trailer park grew up—surrounded by backwoods farms and amid grief, violence, and passionate yearning—to become something improbable: a Buddhist minister teaching Zen.

A delightful account of the seasons in a house and its garden near the sea, a domestic idyll of hardy plants and neighbors, outer and inner weather, love and loss, and taking stock of the life we’ve made The delicious long-form poem “The Vineyard” is set in and around the quasi-fictional...