Eleven soulful stories span the globe, using folklore and myth to explore the territory separating life from death. Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.

Jesus was quite clear that we must lose our life before we find it. This book gives a hopeful and realistic look at what losing our life entails, articulating how “growth” in the Christian life is not our ascent to God but the process by which our eyes are opened to the beauty God has already given to us. It is a book about descending into God, and into our own inner depths, about the deep waters of the Christian faith. “Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) We live in a world that values productivity and success, and we vainly imagine that God expects us to be spiritually productive and successful, too. It doesn’t matter how much we talk about grace, our conversation is often narrowly focused on what we need to do for God—so much so that we often block the work God longs to do in us. This book does not articulate God’s work as a process by which we become spiritually strong, but rather as the process by which we embrace our weakness as the place where we most fully experience God’s perfect strength (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Jay Bakker explores the radical, transformative, and inclusive message at the heart of Jesus's message: grace. If anyone ever had a reason to leave the faith, Jay Bakker did. The son of mega-televangelists Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Messner, Bakker was only 11 years old when his parents' PTL ministry was caught in a high-profile accounting fraud scandal, and his family was devastated by his father's affair and his parents' subsequent divorce. A disillusioned Bakker turned to drugs and alcohol and left his childhood beliefs behind. But along the way, an interesting thing happened: Bakker came to understand, through all his pain, what God's grace was really all about. FALL TO GRACE re-envisions the true nature of grace and what it means in everyday life. With disarming humility, poignant observations, and spot-on theology, Bakker challenges Christians to reassess their understanding of salvation and invites non-believers to see Jesus with fresh eyes.

Paul A. Lavallee is a romantic when writing or talking about small town New England. He is an occasional contributor to a weekly newspaper publication, writing on local issues as well as timely articles of interest. He was born and still lives in the heart of the Blackstone River Valley, where America's industrial revolution began. A Marine veteran of the Korean War, Mr. Lavallee's recollection of growing up in a small mill town during the war years of the 1940's, along with his later experiences at Parris Island, and then in war-ravaged Korea in the 1950's, all tended to inspire him to write his first novel, Rattle of the Looms. That novel was and still is so well received that a sequel seemed imperative. Thus comes the revisiting of the old mill town, Northcross, along with the eeriness of Emery Sibley's mansion, the few vaguely familiar faces over at Felix Morrell's bar, as well as the folks who happen to be still around town in 1982, twenty-eight years after the close of the original novel that ended in 1954. Semper Fi

Emily Freeman offers advice to the Christian woman on letting go of expectations and trusting in God.

Exchange the pressure of accomplishment for the peace of God’s grace When the world demands: achieve, succeed, earn, God says: lean on me, trust me, believe me. That is grace. And that is what God offers: unconditional acceptance of a believing heart. Your heavenly Father loves you enough to hold you in his grace. Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado will help you release a false sense of self-sufficiency. rest in God’s unbending and unending gift of grace. remember that God is for you and will carry you through every circumstance. Today, leap from the cliff of self-sufficiency and land in the strong arms of the Father who loves you . . . the Father who catches you—every time—in the grip of his grace.

Read the series that inspired Three Pines on Prime Video. From the #1 New York Times bestseller Louise Penny comes the second Armand Gamache mystery set in the stunning countryside of Quebec. Winner of the 2007 Agatha Award for Best Novel! Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder. No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death. When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Quebec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed? With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

The arrival of a wealthy young man leads Grace to question what she really wants in life.

Michael L. Printz Honor Book Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book Boston Globe/Horn Book Nonfiction Honor Book Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for Teens Six Starred Reviews—★Booklist ★BCCB ★The Horn Book ★Publishers Weekly ★School Library Connection ★Shelf Awareness A Booklist Best Book for Youth * A BCCB Blue Ribbon * A Horn Book Fanfare Book * A Shelf Awareness Best Children's Book * Recommended on NPR's "Morning Edition" by Kwame Alexander "This powerful story, told with the music of poetry and the blade of truth, will help your heart grow."–Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak and Shout "[A] testimony and a triumph."–Jason Reynolds, author of Long Way Down In her own voice, acclaimed author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the truth of a harrowing childhood in a compelling and moving memoir in verse. Growing up with a mother suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a mostly absent father, Nikki Grimes found herself terrorized by babysitters, shunted from foster family to foster family, and preyed upon by those she trusted. At the age of six, she poured her pain onto a piece of paper late one night - and discovered the magic and impact of writing. For many years, Nikki's notebooks were her most enduing companions. In this accessible and inspiring memoir that will resonate with young readers and adults alike, Nikki shows how the power of those words helped her conquer the hazards - ordinary and extraordinary - of her life.