Griefland. It’s a place no one wants to visit—a place without borders where language is inadequate and pain is constant. It’s a place where every morning one awakens to the stark reality that a loved one will never be seen, heard—or embraced—again. This is a place that Armen Bacon and Nancy Miller know all too well, for when they met, both of them had lost a child—a son, Alex, and a daughter, Rachel. Griefland provides an intimate portrait of what tragedy does to the human soul, how it changes one’s life, and most important, how it can be survived. With achingly beautiful language, this book explores the acute moment-to-moment experience of grief. But it also transcends that and speaks to the redemptive power of friendship, trust, intimacy, and love. Together they discover a will and desire to move forward, recognizing that life is the ultimate prize for those who survive this excruciating journey.

In Grief Land Carrie Shipers explores the paradoxical nature of bereavement as both a universal human experience and an intensely personal one. The poems interrogate and dismiss common notions of loss and recovery through a series of letter-poems—to authors who have written about grief, to the speaker’s dead husband, and to a society that believes it has the right to dictate how a widow should feel and act. The collection explores living with grief without being consumed by it and how to emerge into a new life.

Corruption is endemic in Cameroon. Twice, Transparency International have accorded the country the infamous first place in corruption. As one of many concerned Cameroonians, Sammy Oke Akombi was moved and they realized that something was in fact wrong somewhere and something had to be done somehow. This collection of short stories is his contribution to the collective resolve by concerned Cameroonians to wage a war against this most unusual friend of fairness. The stories seek to elicit awareness about a social ill that is ironically championed by the very politicians, functionaries, educator, leaders and power elite whose duty it is to keep society healthy and on the rails. The stories are on corruption in different segments of society and about the people who perpetrate it. Almost everyone is immersed in it and so must make every effort to resurface from it. It takes only the will to stay alive because the wages of corruption like any other sin can only be death.

At the age of twenty-one, Charlene’s sister, Andrea, along with two other college students were tragically killed in a terrible highway accident that made national news. Working through her grief beside her bereaved parents, tragedy struck again when her mother received a devastating cancer diagnosis. In Brazen Bravery, Charlene tells the story of how she discovered the strength of her family’s rich heritage and deeply rooted Christian faith as she braved the tumultuous waters of grief. Charlene, a natural and captivating storyteller, invites us into her journey, “telling it like it is” with humor, compassion, and an unflappable and inspiring faith. Through journal pages from her sister and mother, along with song lyrics, Bible verses and poignant quotes from favorite authors, her words will remind you that there is always a way through. The truths she holds onto fiercely helped her transcend the pain and made it possible to “believe that life was not just worth living, but worth living well.” Brazen Bravery will not only beckon you to embrace the lessons of loss and ignite your overcomer spirit, but it unwraps biblical truth showing us that the sovereignty of God transcends all brokenness and doubt. And reminds us, once again, that love always wins and life never ends. I have discovered that as the embers of disappointment, pain, and suffocating grief simmer, beauty and love is revealed just underneath. When the flames subside and the ash and soot settle, we start sweeping up the mess and somehow begin recognizing the beauty of the wood at our feet. The intricate design of the grain and the timeless etching of the stress marks. Many people justify spending more money on finely distressed furniture because they see the beauty in its story. And we, who are created through the Master Artist’s hands also show the depths of scarring, beautiful flaws, grief engravings that make us unique and priceless. As hard as it is to adjust and spin the perspective dial, there is purpose beyond the pain. God’s eyes are focused directly on each of us, and His grip is locked. His promise? “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5, NIV) We are overcomers when our response glows with HOPE. A lowlight of peace that sneaks in just under the door. It washes over the sometimes-sad space, softens the scars, and creates something lovely. Something beautiful. A masterpiece! Take all sorrow out of life and you take away all richness, and depth, and tenderness. The capacity of sorrow belongs to our grandeur. It is the furnace that melts hearts together in love. —A.L. Alexander “Charlene Adams communicates powerfully in her book, Brazen Bravery. A dynamic message we all can embrace. ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’” Babbie Mason Author Dove Award Winner Christian Singer-Songwriter TV Talk Show Host

Gayle Taylor Davis had it all -- a husband she adored, two successful daughters, and a career she enjoyed. Then one phone call took it all away, when a policeman called to tell her that her husband of 32 years had suddenly died of a heart attack. Plunged into the strange new world of grief, Davis began to write to make sense of her experience. Grief Sucks: But Love Bears All Things is Davis's personal account of how she climbed out of grief, step by painful step -- a no-holds-barred look at personal pain that is rarely shared or talked about. Davis reveals the worst moments of her grief -- days of tears, nights of wailing, and thoughts of suicide-- and teaches the reader through her example that one can survive the worst. A brutally honest and intimate portrayal of raw grief in all its pain and ugliness, Grief Sucks rejects simpleminded words of comfort to address loss with simple home truths: This is the worst pain you will ever feel. And you will survive it.

“A debut poetry collection showcasing both a fierce and tender new voice.”—Booklist “Elegant and playful . . . The poet invents new forms and updates classic ones.”—Elle “[Fatimah] Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible.”—The New Yorker NAMED ONE OF THE TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY • FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD an aunt teaches me how to tell an edible flower from a poisonous one. just in case, I hear her say, just in case. From a co-creator of the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls comes an imaginative, soulful debut poetry that collection captures the experiences of being a young Pakistani Muslim woman in contemporary America. Orphaned as a child, Fatimah Asghar grapples with coming of age and navigating questions of sexuality and race without the guidance of a mother or father. These poems at once bear anguish, joy, vulnerability, and compassion, while also exploring the many facets of violence: how it persists within us, how it is inherited across generations, and how it manifests itself in our relationships. In experimental forms and language both lyrical and raw, Asghar seamlessly braids together marginalized people’s histories with her own understanding of identity, place, and belonging. Praise for If They Come for Us “In forms both traditional . . . and unorthodox . . . Asghar interrogates divisions along lines of nationality, age, and gender, illuminating the forces by which identity is fixed or flexible. Most vivid and revelatory are pieces such as ‘Boy,’ whose perspicacious turns and irreverent idiom conjure the rich, jagged textures of a childhood shadowed by loss.”—The New Yorker “[Asghar’s] debut poetry collection cemented her status as one of the city’s greatest present-day poets. . . . A stunning work of art that tackles place, race, sexuality and violence. These poems—both personal and historical, both celebratory and aggrieved—are unquestionably powerful in a way that would doubtless make both Gwendolyn Brooks and Harriet Monroe proud.”—Chicago Review of Books “Taut lines, vivid language, and searing images range cover to cover. . . . Inventive, sad, gripping, and beautiful.”—Library Journal (starred review)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Get swept away by this “haunting” (Bustle) YA novel about twelve beautiful sisters living on an isolated island estate who begin to mysteriously die one by one. This dark and atmospheric fairy tale inspired story is perfect for fans of Yellowjackets. "Step inside a fairy tale." —Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed. Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last--the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge--and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods. Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister's deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who--or what--are they really dancing with? When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family--before it claims her next. House of Salt and Sorrows is a spellbinding novel filled with magic and the rustle of gossamer skirts down long, dark hallways. Be careful who you dance with... And don't miss Erin Craig's Small Favors, a mesmerizing and chilling novel about dark wishes and even darker dreams.

Pray A-Z: A Practical Guide to Praying for Your Community will help you topically organize your prayer requests and lay the burdens of your community at the feet of our Heavenly Father. Whether you are praying for a friend's adoption journey, a neighbor's bankruptcy, or a family member's cancer, this book will give you Bible verses, prayer prompts, and prayer starts to guide you through praying for even the most difficult issues that affect the people you know and love. Perfect for either individual or group prayer, Pray A-Z will help you experience the peace that comes from communicating with God.

Clergy, Church Staff, and Lay Leaders want to lead change, yet know their congregations are not ready. Farming Church provides clear guidance for readying congregations for deep, adaptive change. The Readiness Indicator, an inventory assessing the congregation's openness to change, is included in each book. Through Farming Church, readers are equipped to use the Seven Key Cultivations for readying the growing environment (congregation) for adaptive change. Rather than initiate change which withers on the vine, the Farming Church Ministry Plan increases the likelihood that Christ-centered adaptation will flow from the efforts of congregational leaders.Mark Tidsworth actively engages the intersection of God, faith, Church, and culture. Starting Pinnacle Leadership in 2008, Mark serves as its President. A wide variety of vocational experiences equip Mark with an expansive perspective and integrated approach regarding congregational leadership; including coach, trainer, consultant, pastor, non-profit organization director, therapist, business-owner. Frequently Mark is a speaker and presenter with congregations, denominational gatherings, and clergy gatherings. Farming Church is Mark's fifth book, all of which are found at Pinnacle Leadership Press or on Amazon. Columbia, South Carolina is the basecamp for Pinnacle and the community from which Mark lives, works, and plays.

Carrie Shipers’s Cause for Concern traverses a landscape of assorted disasters—such as overwork and layoffs, the ill-fated explorer, circus mishaps, nuclear disaster and radiation—but at its heart is the personal disaster of spousal illness. While a spouse might avow faith in the sentiment of love in sickness and in health, the practice of such faith might come undone when faced with the reality of the ravages of illness on the stricken body of the beloved, alongside the caregiving mate who “could love/ [her] husband but distrust his body,/ expect betrayal at every turn.” Full of incisive meditations on frailties and fortitude often delivered with visceral honesty, Cause for Concern is spellbinding from start to finish and, deservedly, the winner of the 2014 Able Muse Book Award for Poetry. PRAISE FOR CAUSE FOR CONCERN: Carrie Shipers’s magnificent endeavor aims to control the uncontrollable. In her splendid collection Cause for Concern she gives us her spirited poems—subversively satisfying in our era of cool wordplay. Both her comfort with ambiguity and her sassy candor aid the poet as she writes of a wife who is hoodwinked into a necessary patience—one she both chafes from and rebels against after her husband falls seriously ill. In rhythms that alternate between hope and defeat, the poems track the illness, but also punctuate the couple’s changed world with quirky observations and a scrappy spirituality. (Not to mention a canine companion.) Her poet’s craft, palpable in every arresting line, makes the subtlest turns of vulnerability with enviable poise. —Molly Peacock, 2014 Able Muse Book Award judge, author of The Paper Garden Only a poet of unquestionable bravery and technical acuity could rehearse the quotidian details of a middle class, middle aged existence with such exquisite, irresistible and terrifying honesty. —Kwame Dawes, author of Duppy Conqueror: New and Selected Poems If illness is a country inhospitable to guests, then Carrie Shipers’s second poetry collection, Cause for Concern, is our guidebook, preparing us for what we will find in the waiting room, by the bedside, in the bathroom, or on the skin when the gauze is lifted. These are naked, open poems. They say things that make us wince, as when we look at an incision still puckered and red. Shipers reminds us that our lives must first be prodded and cauterized, if the injured parts are ever to heal. —Jehanne Dubrow, author of The Arranged Marriage