Power of Prayer: Make a Joyful Noise Faced with raising two children with disabilities and the loss of her own eyesight, Brode experienced seemingly insurmountable hardships in her personal life. Through her discovery of the power of prayer, she rose to meet the challenges confronting her family with remarkable strength and fortitude.

Portals to Freedom Average Rating: 

(4)

Portals to Freedom is an intimate portrait of one of the most significant religious figures in recent history, 'Abdu'l-Bahá - the son and appointed successor of the Prophet of the Baha'i Faith.

In Spite of All Barriers In South Africa, during the harsh years of Apartheid between the years of 1948 and the 1990s, racial discrimination was at its peak. Gathering together was restricted, and certain meetings between Blacks and Whites were forbidden. Under the strictures of culture and government, though, people of different races were finding ways to collaborate for social and spiritual betterment. Author and translator Robert Mazibuko, a black South African, shares his personal accounts of teaching the Bahá'í Faith in South Africa, in partnership with Lowell Johnson, a white American. In Spite of All Barriers offers insight into how people working in unity can effect great change.

Arising Average Rating: 

(4)

Arising is the autobiography of Kevin Locke—a member of the Lakota tribe and a renowned hoop dancer, flutist, and storyteller—who has traveled the world as a performer and a promoter of principles such as the oneness of humankind.

Twigs of a Family Tree Average Rating: 

(3)

Twigs of a Family Tree is a story about faith. The four chapters of this book, written by four different individuals, are connected through the bonds of spiritual ties. They make up a spiritual family, having learned of or taught the Baha'i Faith to each other. This book is for anyone who knows the path is not always straight and smooth. It is meant to encourage and inspire, and to assure others that they are not alone in their questions and spiritual tests.

American Indians and the Baha'i Faith - Personal Stories

A compilation of stories by American Indians who are members of the Bahá’í Faith, written in their own words. Being free to write and share in their own words and formats, seven American Indian Bahá’ís tell the story of their backgrounds, how they became Bahá’ís, their life adventures, and how this Faith works for them. These stories are meant to show the unique personal stories of Bahá’ís coming from American Indian backgrounds, including the many challenges and joys they’ve faced when accepting and integrating a new religion into their traditional cultural and spiritual beliefs and practices.

Year of Living Deeply Published for the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the year it commemorates, Robert Atkinson’s Year of Living Deeply: A Memoir of 1969 is a thoughtful and rewarding journey that is equal parts inward and universal. Atkinson reflects on a year that shaped a generation and invites us into his own spiritual search as he uncovers timeless patterns as they unfold in his life, linking his own story with the stories of countless others. The result is a soulful, meditative memoir full of generous and spiritual insight.

Daylight Forever: A Memoir This courageous and hopeful memoir is a portrait of a childhood in Iran cut short, a young woman's journey to flee oppression, and the story of a refugee who learns what it means to come home.

Without Hesitation Average Rating: 

(5)

On a December day in 1973, Anisa Abdul-Razzaq Abbas heard a knock at the door of the Baghdad home she was visiting. She opened the door to greet two men from the Iraqi Al-Amn security force, who immediately placed her under arrest. Her crime: being a member of the Bahá’í Faith, a religious minority in her native Iraq.

Over the next six years, Anisa—along with other members of the Bahá’í community who were arrested at that time—would spend three years in Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison and a further three years in Al-Rashaad prison before her release in 1979. During her years of incarceration, Anisa would rely on her faith to meet the myriad challenges of prison life. Day after day, she and her fellow-prisoners experienced levels of cruelty and injustice that most would find unthinkable. Separated from her husband, who was being held in the men’s prison, and from her children who were without both parents, Anisa was sustained through her darkest days by the steadfast devotion and sacrificial love of her family, and by the strength and solidarity offered by her fellow Bahá’í prisoners.

Anisa’s story is one of patience, courage, and steadfastness in the face of religious prejudice and state-sponsored oppression, and it is a reminder to us all of the resilient strength of the human spirit.

When Reason Sleeps The compelling narrative of Manuchihr Farzaneh-Moayyad, a Baha'i who was arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned and executed in Iran, and of his wife Mehri, who was herself imprisoned before her dramatic escape across the Iranian desert on camelback with her young daughter to refuge in Pakistan and, at last, to her new home in Scotland.

Fires in Many Hearts

Doris McKay became a Bahá’í in 1925 through the teaching efforts of Howard and Mabel Ives. This book tells the story of Doris and her husband Willard’s life as early American Bahá’ís, of their friendships with people such as the Ives, Grace and Harlan Ober, Louis Gregory, May Maxwell, Martha Root, Dorothy Baker, and others. It tells the story of the McKay’s work in the racial amity field and their eventual pioneering move to eastern Canada in the 1940s.

Doris tells her story with clear-sightedness, zest, and love. This book provides an intimate glimpse into the spiritual life of a dedicated Bahá’í teacher and the development of the Bahá’í Faith in America.

Chosen Path: Inspiration Stories on Why People Became Baha'is The Chosen Path is an anthology of stories that chronicles the unique lives of forty-five people from different walks of life who became Baha'is from every corner of the globe. This book highlights individuals from a wide array of religious backgrounds - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Agnostic, Atheist, the Occult - who were once searching for the truth, and ultimately found their way to becoming adherents of the Baha'i Faith. Each story is personal and touching in its own way, and shows the diverse paths and backgrounds that make up the Baha’i community.