The heart-cry of every child without parents-a cry to be loved and to belong-told through the story of one boy named Jacob. For over two decades, Gary Stephens, his wife Helen, and their four biological children lived in Hong Kong. There they worked with Vietnamese refugees, then founded several homes for orphans and assisted with local and international adoptions. Later, their work spilled into mainland China, when they learned of baby girls being abandoned in alarming numbers, innocent victims of the one-child policy. Gary and Helen acted, helping to found an orphanage in a city in southern China. But the heart of this story is their son Jacob, who was born without eyes and subsequently abandoned. Underweight and sickly, two-year-old Jacob had lived in four different institutions before they found him and brought him to their home for children with special needs. They adopted him in 1998 and have spent the last sixteen years reclaiming what was lost in those first two. Waiting for a Father is a story of hope and reconciliation, of people who did not look away, who instead opened their hearts to a child who needed them. This inspiring message is a call to action: to help empty the orphanages of the world...one child at a time.

The Waiting Father is a collection of sermons by Helmut Thielicke, the great German preacher and theologian, which offer deep insights into the spiritual message of Jesus's fifteen major parables. They were originally preached in Michaelskirche, Hamburg, in the mid-1950s. Thielicke approaches the parables in novel ways. In treating the prodigal son, for instance, he concentrates more on the loving father than the rebellious son, emphasising the centrality of forgiveness. Similarly, when discussing the pharisee and the publican he shows that the publican is guilty of spiritual pride and arrogance, drawing attention to the dangers for the faithful. Both among expositions of the parables and among books for preachers, The Waiting Father stands in a class of its own. Great scholars are usually poor preachers, and great scholars are rarely good preachers, but Thielicke manages to combine distinguished scholarship with fine preaching.

A brilliant and utterly original new novel from Mark Leyner about a father and his intense and devout relationship with his daughter and with alcohol. An anthropologist and his daughter travel to Kermunkachunk, the capitol of Chalazia, to conduct research for an ethnography on the Chalazian Mafia Faction (a splinter group of the Chalazian Children's Theater). The book takes place over the course of a night at the Bar Pulpo, Kermunkachunk's #1 spoken-word karaoke bar, where conversations are actually being read from multiple karaoke screens arrayed around the barroom. Moreover, it's Thursday, "Father/Daughter Nite," when the bar is frequented by actual fathers and daughters as well as couples cosplaying fathers and daughters. ​ Last Orgy of the Divine Hermit is a book about the deep pleasures of reading and drinking, the tumultuous reign of a cabal of mystic mobsters, and, of course, the transcendent love of a father for his daughter.

Mark Stibbe points the reader to a story Jesus told over 2,000 years ago which demonstrates the qualities of a perfect dad. More than that the story paints the clearest picture of what Jesus thought God is really like. It provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the Father youve been waiting for and contains many new insights into a story loved by millions and known as the parable of parables. "This is a must-read for anyone who wants a direct, honest explanation of how remarkable God who created the universe and more, loves and is interested in an exclusive, intimate, life-transforming relationship with you." - Diane Louise Jordan

"What would you do if you knew your unborn child would be born with a serious birth defect? That's the question that was facing Chad and Ashley Judice of Lafayette, Louisiana, when their unborn son was diagnosed with spina bifida in a 16-weeks ultrasound. If brought to term, the child could be paralyzed from the waist on down. He would probably have little or no control of his bowels or bladder. And he could have any number of learning disabilities associated with a related birth defect called hydrocephalus, commonly referred to as "water on the brain". When the doctor gave the Judices the diagnosis, she expressed her sincere sympathy, then proceeded to ask Ashley if she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. The medical literature on this birth defect indicates 80 percent of parents who are given this diagnosis do close abortion. Ashley and Chad did not want to be in that number. Instead, they would pray for a miracle" --Cover, p. 2.

The Waiting Father is a collection of sermons by Helmut Thielicke, the great German preacher and theologian, which offer deep insights into the spiritual message of Jesus's fifteen major parables. They were originally preached in Michaelskirche, Hamburg, in the mid-1950s. Thielicke approaches the parables in novel ways. In treating the prodigal son, for instance, he concentrates more on the loving father than the rebellious son, emphasising the centrality of forgiveness. Similarly, when discussing the pharisee and the publican he shows that the publican is guilty of spiritual pride and arrogance, drawing attention to the dangers for the faithful. Both among expositions of the parables and among books for preachers, The Waiting Father stands in a class of its own. Great scholars are usually poor preachers, and great scholars are rarely good preachers, but Thielicke manages to combine distinguished scholarship with fine preaching.

Best friends, first loves, and memorable adventures are just a few of the unforgettable things in life that stay with you forever. Wayne Danka remembers them fondly in this heartwarming and often funny collection of five short stories celebrating a time when friends, family, and having fun were the most important things. Wayne and the guys he grew up with found themselves mixing it up with neighborhood street gangs, professional gamblers, and even mafia gangsters, all for the love of excitement. It was part of the culture growing up on the streets of New Jersey, a culture of manufacturing mischief, disregarding the probable odds, and simply being unafraid to take life as it comes. From the author of What Do You Want to Do, Break Your Mother’s Heart! comes another opportunity for readers to once again take a step back in time. Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home! is a genuine testimonial to the magical love between a father and his two sons, the impact loyal friendships have in developing character, and the reverence of an era that will never again be duplicated.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In this iconic memoir of his early days, Barack Obama “guides us straight to the intersection of the most serious questions of identity, class, and race” (The Washington Post Book World). “Quite extraordinary.”—Toni Morrison In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Praise for Dreams from My Father “Beautifully crafted . . . moving and candid . . . This book belongs on the shelf beside works like James McBride’s The Color of Water and Gregory Howard Williams’s Life on the Color Line as a tale of living astride America’s racial categories.”—Scott Turow “Provocative . . . Persuasively describes the phenomenon of belonging to two different worlds, and thus belonging to neither.”—The New York Times Book Review “Obama’s writing is incisive yet forgiving. This is a book worth savoring.”—Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here “One of the most powerful books of self-discovery I’ve ever read, all the more so for its illuminating insights into the problems not only of race, class, and color, but of culture and ethnicity. It is also beautifully written, skillfully layered, and paced like a good novel.”—Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of In My Place “Dreams from My Father is an exquisite, sensitive study of this wonderful young author’s journey into adulthood, his search for community and his place in it, his quest for an understanding of his roots, and his discovery of the poetry of human life. Perceptive and wise, this book will tell you something about yourself whether you are black or white.”—Marian Wright Edelman

Mark Stibbe points the reader to a story Jesus told over 2,000 years ago which demonstrates the qualities of a perfect dad. More than that the story paints the clearest picture of what Jesus thought God is really like. It provides a wonderfully accessible introduction to the Father youve been waiting for and contains many new insights into a story loved by millions and known as the parable of parables. "This is a must-read for anyone who wants a direct, honest explanation of how remarkable God who created the universe and more, loves and is interested in an exclusive, intimate, life-transforming relationship with you." - Diane Louise Jordan