New Book by: Lida Berghuis (Author)
This book is a compilation of my diary entries from when I was 12-16 years old, 1976-1980. The Islamic revolution took place in 1979 and just months before that my family left Iran for Canada because we were Bahá’ís and afraid of the persecution that would follow this regime change. This is also the story of immigration with all its challenges and joys.
Imagine a fourteen-year-old girl in Iran, writing in her diaries, and suddenly finding herself and her family at the Bahrein Airport, leaving Iran, because of the rumblings of a revolution and fear of persecution as a Bahá’í family. Her family goes to London for a month, intending to return to Iran, but the situation gets worse by the day, and finally the regime in Iran changes to an Islamic Republic. Her family never returns. Instead, they immigrate to Canada and build a new life in their adopted country.
This book is the story of religious persecution. The Bahá’ís who stayed in Iran paid a great price. Some were imprisoned and some were killed, and many had their belongings confiscated. The youth were deprived of university education and the Bahá’ís were not allowed to work in the public sector. Those who left Iran had to start their lives all over in a new land with new rules, sometimes able to work, sometimes unable to transfer their skills to that country.
This book is the story of immigration. A family of four leaves Iran and arrives in Canada and tries to navigate its way in a new system, a new language, and a new culture. Immigration can lead to freedom of religion and thought but it has its own challenges for the members of the family who will respond differently to those issues.
This book is the story of a young girls who writes daily in her diary and wonders if one day she can publish it in a book and tell her story to the world.
I’m very pleased to say that that dream has been realized. I hope you enjoy reading the book which is available on Amazon. If you leave a review, I will be most grateful.
New edition of Dr. A.M.Ghadirian book, Doukhobors and the Bahá'í Faith including Tolstoy and his Appreciation of the Bahá'í Faith is now reviewed and approved by the National Assembly and will remain as a Bahá'í Canada Publications.
The arts teacher is ruining what used to be Aiko’s favorite class. Zeke misses out on the best part of the whole year – the science fair – when he has to go into the hospital. Arwen lives to play soccer, but a stupid lie means he might not be allowed to play. Ghada comes home to find that her beloved grandma has died.
When ten-year-old friends set up an after-school club so they can hang out together more often, they don’t expect to be able to solve these problems themselves. But when they tap into the spirit within them, they and their friends discover that they have the power to make the world a better place.
Arwen’s schoolwork and coaching duties are increasing substantially; to make it worse, his parents are having marriage problems. Ghada is struggling to choose between what her Bahá’í Faith teaches and what magazines, television, and movies invite her to do. Being part of the Spirit Within Club is taking its toll on Egan’s friendships at the Buddhist Temple. The club’s newest member, MaSovaida, doesn’t understand why the house of a devout Christian family like hers was robbed.
After the initial success of their club, launched only a year ago, a group of eleven-year-old friends realise that making the world a better place entails a whole new set of challenges. But when they start widening their circle - of friends, mentors, and activities – they realise that their power and influence can only increase.
The Baha’i Faith claims a special and unique relationship to Islam. The religion acknowledges its origins in 19th-century Shi’i Islam, celebrates the Qur’an as the authentic Word of God, and honors the Prophet Muhammad as Messenger of God and Seal of the Prophets. But, on the other hand, the Baha’i Faith insists that it is a new and independent religion that stands distinct and apart from Islam and Islamic practice. This book attempts to understand how such an apparent “cognitive dissonance” may be resolved. Being Human seeks to reconcile contradictions and demonstrate how Baha’i teachings point the way toward peace and the reconciliation of all world religions
Online at kalimat.com.
Being Human:
Bahá’í Perspectives on Islam, Modernity, and Peace.
By Todd Lawson. Kalimat, 2019.
The Nirvana Threads is a love story, a spiritual adventure, a nostalgic time-travel to the 90’s punk rock era, and a playful exploration of the magical.
Set in the 90’s when people didn’t have cell phones, smoked in bars, and punk rock was thriving. Carlie, a wild, twenty-five year old drifter moves back to her parents’ after surviving a traumatic accident. Back home, she starts seeing things she doesn’t understand, and the feelings that come with them are overwhelmingly blissful. When chasing the source of her new joy starts to pull her closer to death, she must find a way to harness this power that makes her feel so alive.
Includes the short graphic novel “Octob*tch and the WrenchKing”
Topaz, free-spirited, ill-fitting heroine in an absurd, dystopian fantasy world, does the unthinkable of following her heart through the strangest of portals, revealing the truth of her destiny. But how much will she sacrifice to fulfill it? A colorful, poetic adventure about growth, authenticity and seeing things to the end.
Under the rule of the terrible Murx, where Mirthlings show false kindness out of duty and live out terrifically absurd pre-ordained callings in permanent joylessness, our ill-fitting heroine Topaz trades her stifling life for the most surreal of portals, orbiglass worlds and fantastic friends, discovering her true origins and inherent powers on her path to attain the silver-peaked mountain where she believes happiness awaits her. There and back again, Topaz battles with herself as she faces the challenges of friendship, deceit and loss, until with a little magic and a lot of heart she comes to love the Mirthlings she once despised, inadvertently emerging as the one destined to return balance to all the worlds.
In kinship with DiTerlizzi’s The Search for WondLa and Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories – a story to transport and inspire the young and the young at heart.
(This book is currently being revised and re-edited, and will be re-released near the end of 2019 with a new cover and a map.)