Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a major public health crisis that is on the rise and impacting people of all ages. Addressing the crisis of loneliness from a fresh perspective, this book introduces belonging as an overlooked but critical aspect of a flourishing Christian life. Eric Jacobsen shows how three pieces of glass--the car windshield, TV, and smartphone--are emblematic of significant societal shifts that have created a cultural habit of physical isolation. We feel increasingly disconnected from the people and places around us. Jacobsen explains how adopting everyday practices and making changes in our neighborhoods can help us create a sense of belonging and rediscover what belonging in a place looks like. In order to effectively solve the problem of loneliness, we need to recover patterns and practices of community life that encourage us to form meaningful connections with people and stories that are part of the places where we live, work, and worship. To this end, Jacobsen offers four redemptive strategies for living a more intentional and spiritual life.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An astonishing novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises. In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage.... Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion. Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses.... Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father. Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her. In prose rich with compassion and wit, Three Junes paints a haunting portrait of love’s redemptive powers.

Sometimes joy and grief are separated by mere moments. A last-minute run down a ski slope ... a catastrophic accident ... and an amazing young man is reduced to a comatose form in a hospital bed. His adoring fiancée remains to weep, pray, grieve, rage, and struggle with the jagged trauma of suffering and loss. Some questions have no answers. Some things in life just don’t make sense—including God. And yet ... There is God.There is a deeper, more real faith that roots in the wasteland.There is a promise that comforts, and there is hope, and there is life. Pieces of Glass is the poignant, deeply personal chronicle of a young woman’s journey through grief. With eloquence and relentless honesty, author Sarah Kay shares the emotional ebb and flow of her own heart and spirit—and in so doing, reassures, comforts, and encourages us all.

Award-winning Hollywood screenwriter and author John Sacret Young embraces and appreciates art, particularly American art and Modernism, and has collected and written about it for much of his life. In Pieces of Glass, Young mixes the "art" side of his life with a true memoir to create a unique Artoire in which he explores the profound effect it has had on him, his work, and his existence. From Rothko to John Marin, Diebenkorn to Vermeer, and Rockwell to Charles Burchfield, Young discovers that paintings, drawings, sketches and even chalk on an old garage wall have helped "paint" him into the person he is today

"A girl struggles to take care of her younger brother with special needs while confronting her own anger issues"--

'One of the best fantasy book series of the past decade' TIME Never trust an assassin. Celaena's story continues in this second book in the #1 bestselling Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become the King's Champion. But she is far from loyal to the crown. Though she goes to great lengths to hide her secret, her deadly charade becomes more difficult when she realises she is not the only one seeking justice. Her search for answers ensnares those closest to her, and no one is safe from suspicion - not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a princess with a rebel heart. Then, one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie ... and what she is willing to fight for. The second book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series returns readers to a land destroyed by liars, where one woman's truth is the only thing that can save them all.

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller! "An outstanding historical novel of 17th–century France ... based on a real–life scandal known as the Affaire des Poisons, this tale is riveting from start to finish."—Library Journal Her ability to see the future may prevent her from living in the present... For a handful of gold, Madame de Morville will read your future in a glass of swirling water. You'll believe her, because you know she's more than 150 years old and a witch, and she has all of Paris in the palm of her hand. But Madame de Morville hides more behind her black robes than you know. Her real age, the mother and uncle who left her for dead, the inner workings of the most secret society of Parisian witches: none of these truths would help her outwit the rich who so desperately want the promise of the future. After all, it's her own future she must control , no matter how much it is painted with uncertainty and clouded by vengeance. More Praise for The Oracle Glass: "Absorbing and arresting."—New York Times "Fascinating and factual."—Los Angeles Times "Chilly, witty, and completely engrossing ... great, good fun."— Kirkus Reviews "Take a full cup of wit, two teaspoons of brimstone, and a dash of poison, and you have Judith Merkle Riley's mordant, compelling tale of an ambitious young woman who disguises herself as an ancient prophetess in order to gain entry into the dangerous, scheming glamour of the Sun King's court. Based on scandalous true events, The Oracle Glass brims with our human foibles, passions, and eccentricities; it's a classic of the genre and unlike any historical novel you have ever read."—C. W. Gortner, author of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow. Look for CROSSED, the sequel to MATCHED, in Fall 2011! Watch a Video

ALICE FEENEYS NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER “Boldly plotted, tightly knotted—a provocative true-or-false thriller that deepens and darkens to its ink-black finale. Marvelous.” —AJ Finn, author of The Woman in the Window My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me: 1. I’m in a coma. 2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore. 3. Sometimes I lie. Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?

"Includes a sneak peak at book four of the Mortal instruments, and a chapter from the new prequel series, the Infernal devices"--P. [4] of cover.