Mary Karr describes herself as a black-belt sinner, and this -- her fourth collection of poems --traces her improbable journey from the inferno of a tormented childhood into a resolutely irreverent Catholicism. Not since Saint Augustine wrote "Give me chastity, Lord -- but not yet!" has anyone brought such smart-assed hilarity to a conversion story. Karr's battle is grounded in common loss (a bitter romance, friends' deaths, a teenage son's leaving home) as well as in elegies for a complicated mother. The poems disarm with the arresting humor familiar to readers of her memoirs, The Liars' Club and Cherry. An illuminating cycle of spiritual poems have roots in Karr's eight-month tutelage in Jesuit prayer practice, and as an afterword, her celebrated essay on faith weaves the tale of how the language of poetry, which relieved her suffering so young, eventually became the language of prayer. Those of us who fret that poetry denies consolation will find clear-eyed joy in this collection.

Pastor and writer Rich Wilkerson Jr. shines a spotlight on every Christian’s calling to reach the world, seek the lost, and save sinners with Jesus’ scandalous message of the gospel of grace. In Friend of Sinners, we learn: that by following his example, we can have the same clear conviction and compassion for the lost that he did, that His gospel of scandalous grace cannot be overestimated, and How to embrace the truth that we all need Jesus equally. The Bible calls Jesus a friend of sinners. What does that mean? In Friend of Sinners, Rich Wilkerson Jr. shows readers the profound implications of the reality that Jesus calls us “friends, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who he is. While he was on earth, Jesus knew that people needed to feel like they belong before they would want to behave. He understood that the power within him was greater than the darkness around him, so he loved fearlessly.