January Publication
The third installment in Bell Tower's attractively packaged Sacred Teachings series, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offers a modern translation of a 2,300-year-old Indian meditation text. Translator Alistair Shearer gives a somewhat ethereal introduction ("Yoga is the transformation into the Divine, and of the Divine into everything") that is too long-winded at 80-odd pages. Still, the sutras are beautifully rendered. ($15 144p ISBN 0-609-60959-9; Jan. 8)
The Cadillac of Commentaries
Written by a team of more than 70 Christian and Jewish scholars from around the globe, The Oxford Bible Commentary is one of the most comprehensive one-volume commentaries available. Edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, the entries are arranged in biblical order, with verse-by-verse discussions of meaning, context and language. If the tome is too hefty or unwieldy to use, never fear: each book comes packaged with a sampler CD-ROM, which allows readers to easily search and cross-reference the books of Genesis and Matthew. The entire text is available on CD-ROM for an additional fee. (Oxford, $65 1,488p ISBN 0-19-875500-7; Dec.)
The All-Singing, All-Dancing Prophecy Book
In the 1830s and early 1840s, Baptist preacher William Miller gained thousands of followers when he announced that the world would come to an end in 1843. He was adept at parlaying his message through books and copious pamphlets, and plied his audiences with detailed prophecy charts, mathematical tables and timelines. A century and a half later, Left Behind pedagogue Tim LaHaye (writing with Thomas Ice) seems to take a leaf from Miller's book in issuing Charting the End Times: A Visual Guide to Understanding Bible Prophecy. It has charts, illustrations and maps!.Its glossy, full-color format is light-years beyond Miller's, but the prophecy content is much the same. (Unlike Miller, LaHaye rather wisely does not set a projected date for Christ's return.) (Harvest House, $24.99 144p ISBN 0-7369-0138-8; Nov.)
More Everyday Buddhism
This year has seen a stable of books and devotionals that aim to enhance daily life with Buddhist principles: 24/7 Dharma (Tuttle), Zen 24/7 (Harper San Francisco) and The Buddha's Book of Daily Meditations (Shambhala), just to name a few. Putnam/Tarcher joins the party with Jeff Schmidt's 365 Buddha: Daily Meditations. While there's nothing original about the book's concept, Schmidt is refreshingly honest about that: the opening epigraph actually assures readers that "nothing new will be said here." This is a nice book of short daily meditations, but it's virtually indistinguishable from its peers. ($14.95 paper 400p ISBN 1-58542-143-X; Jan.)
Tuttle adds to its entry-level Simple series with Simple Tibetan Buddhism: A Guide to Tantric Living, an accessible and easy-to-use guide by Alexander and Annellen Simpkins. Particularly useful are its explanations of the different sects of Tibetan Buddhism and the role of lamas. (Tuttle, $12.95 paper 168p ISBN 0-8048-3199-8; Nov. 20)
