Occasionally, a reader will happen upon a book that is excellent as a bedtime sleeping aidbut not this one. With nearly five score different events, happenings, and adventures with dozens of related and pertinent rabbit trails lending credence to the excursions, the reader will be thumb ready to eagerly flip a page, seeking the outcome of the last daring deed of the adventuresome author. Wide is the variety of decent and noble escapades at a time when seat belts were unknown, standing up in the center aisle of the school bus for six miles was permitted, and unwritten laws of the land promoted unlimited homemade adventures and the unshackled variety of down-to-earth fun. Youthful minds, unabashedly, often ran rampant in the myriad of rare adventures that were available to pursue. We attempted many and lived to tell about our assorted and varied shenanigansmost of them with a grin!

In the strange, us-versus-them Christian subculture of the 1990s, a person’s faith was measured by how many WWJD bracelets she wore and whether he had kissed dating goodbye. Evangelical poster child Addie Zierman wore three bracelets asking what Jesus would do. She also led two Bible studies and listened exclusively to Christian music. She was on fire for God and unaware that the flame was dwindling—until it burned out. Addie chronicles her journey through church culture and first love, and her entrance—unprepared and angry—into marriage. When she drops out of church and very nearly her marriage as well, it is on a sea of tequila and depression. She isn’t sure if she’ll ever go back. When We Were on Fire is a funny, heartbreaking story of untangling oneself from what is expected to arrive at faith that is not bound by tradition or current church fashion. Addie looks for what lasts when nothing else seems worth keeping. It’s a story for doubters, cynics, and anyone who has felt alone in church.

You became excited, delighted, and happy when you answered the phone. One of your friends said, "Hi, this is ......., and I've had you on my mind for several days. How are you? It thrilled your heart that someone "thought" about you. Somebody cared! They cared about you! They called! Now think about Jesus, that when he came here, YOU were on his mind, on the mind of Christ. Put your name in this sentence: "I, ......, was on the mind of Christ." Yes, ...., you were on the mind of Christ" That's awesome! That thought should thrill your very soul. Read this book and see how you fit in. The eternal mind of Christ was full; it included thoughts about obedience, integrity, wisdom, and much, much more, including life for you and me. This Book will help you see what it means to walk with him every day. After my first book was published in 2008, I felt pushed by the Holy Spirit to continue writing, to write something else. What came to mind, like a question, was, what was on the mind of Christ when he came to live with us? After considering several topics I believed could have been on his mind, it suddenly hit me that YOU were on his mind, and that what he said and did was done so that YOU could know him and serve him properly. Therefore came: YOU were on the mind of Christ. The title of my first book is: Unfold the Mystery of Daniel and Revelation.

The instant New York Times Bestseller • Nominated for the 2019 National Book Award for Fiction “A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universal…Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard. With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years. Named a Best Book of the Year by: GQ, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library Journal, TIME, Esquire, The Washington Post, Apple, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, The New York Public Library, Elle.com, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, NPR, Lithub, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue.com, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mother Jones, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal Magazine and more!

‘Witty, funny, warm and wise’ Marian Keyes Is it a break? Or is it a blip?

Discusses activities astronauts do while they're in space.