Leave It to Claire


Tracey Bateman - 2006
    Author and single mother Claire Everett is in for a rude awakening when she is forced to recuperate following an unexpected surgery and embarks on a six-step program designed to transform her life, her family, and her personal relationships, until she discovers that all she needs is God in her life

The Stranger in the Lifeboat


Mitch Albom - 2021
    He claims to be “the Lord.” And he says he can only save them if they all believe in him.Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, nine people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in.“Thank the Lord we found you,” a passenger says.“I am the Lord,” the man whispers.So begins Mitch Albom’s most beguiling and inspiring novel yet.Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one bestsellers The Five People You Meet in Heaven and The First Phone Call from Heaven. Now, for the first time in his fiction, he ponders what we would do if, after crying out for divine help, God actually appeared before us? What might the Lord look, sound and act like?In The Stranger in the Lifeboat, Albom keeps us guessing until the end: Is this strange and quiet man really who he claims to be? What actually happened to cause the explosion? Are the survivors already in heaven, or are they in hell?The story is narrated by Benji, one of the passengers, who recounts the events in a notebook that is later discovered—a year later—when the empty life raft washes up on the island of Montserrat.It falls to the island’s chief inspector, Jarty LeFleur, a man battling his own demons, to solve the mystery of what really happened. A fast-paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, The Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found where we least expect them.

In This House of Brede


Rumer Godden - 1969
    This extraordinarily sensitive and insightful portrait of religious life centers on Philippa Talbot, a highly successful professional woman who leaves her life among the London elite to join a cloistered Benedictine community.

New Hampshire Weddings


Rachel Hauck - 2005
    Taylor hopes moving to White Birch will be the perfect place to regroup and refocus her faltering career. Julie has to face the fact she will never have children and keep it from destroying her marriage. Elizabeth's prideful ambitions have always led her to success, but they may keep her from true love and happiness.

Dinner With a Perfect Stranger / Day With a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering


David Gregory - 2005
    Although his seventy-hour workweek has already eaten into his limited family time, Nick can’t pass up the opportunity to see what kind of plot his colleagues have hatched.The normally confident, cynical Nick soon finds himself thrown off-balance, drawn into an intriguing conversation with a baffling man who appears to be more than comfortable discussing everything from world religions to the existence of heaven and hell. And this man who calls himself Jesus also seems to know a disturbing amount about Nick’s personal life.………….."You’re bored, Nick. You were made for more than this. You’re worried about God stealing your fun, but you’ve got it backwards.… There’s no adventure like being joined to the Creator of the universe." He leaned back off the table. "And your first mission would be to let him guide you out of the mess you’re in at work."…………. As the evening progresses, their conversation touches on life, God, meaning, pain, faith, and doubt–and it seems that having Dinner with a Perfect Stranger may change Nick’s life forever. From the Hardcover edition.

Sensible Shoes: A Story about the Spiritual Journey


Sharon Garlough Brown - 2010
    Meg, a widow and recent empty-nester who is haunted by her past. Mara, a woman who has experienced a lifetime of rejection and is now trying to navigate a difficult marriage. Charissa, a hard-working graduate student who wants to get things right. You?re invited to join these four women as they reluctantly arrive at a retreat center and find themselves drawn out of their separate stories of isolation and struggle and into a collective journey of spiritual practice, mutual support and personal revelation. Along the way, readers will be taken into a new understanding of key spiritual practices and find tangible support for the deeper life with God. If you want to travel this journey with others, you will find a group study guide and book club resources at www.sensibleshoesclub.com.

Home Sweet Home


Kristen Brown - 2011
    Anxious to start a new life, Samantha decides to open up a business of her own, and throws herself into making the dream a reality. But along the way, there are plenty of obstacles popping up to make life a little more challenging than she expected - nosy neighbors and cranky in-laws, attractive men and pretentious sisters, a gossipy mother, mysterious hate mail, and ghosts from the past that threaten to destroy everything she's worked to achieve. And just when Sam thinks things couldn't possibly get worse, there's a murder on her property that the local detective seems mighty determined to pin on the newest resident of Peabody. Suddenly Sam is overwhelmed with troubles she never imagined, and she knows the only way to get through any of it is by keeping her sense of humor and trusting that God really does know exactly what He is doing.

Bones of Fire


Eric M. Hill - 2011
    He doesn’t believe in demons or warlocks, and he only theoretically believes in angels. But his ignorance of spiritual warfare won’t shield him from being chosen by God for a mission so critical that the angel who commanded the forces at The Battle of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the angel known as The Sword of the Lord, has been assigned to help him. And Edwin will need all the help this famed warrior angel has to offer. For the kingdom of darkness has assigned the Mighty Bashnar, one of its most ruthless demons and cunning military strategists, to thwart God’s plan and to destroy this man of God. He will soon learn from painful experience why this cruel warrior spirit was granted the title, Mighty.Edwin's wife, Elizabeth, is a Christian, but she’s not passionate about the Lord or His work. What she is passionate about is her good-looking husband, Edwin. Everything is lovely until the Mighty Bashnar attacks her husband and revives a shameful weakness from his past that shuts down their love life. But Elizabeth isn’t the longsuffering type. She’s going to get her needs met one way or the other.Sharon is the perfect Christian daughter. A teenager whose wisdom and devotion to God far surpasses her fifteen years. She’s the spiritual anchor of the family—until a relentless witchcraft spirit orchestrates a devastating betrayal and assault that shakes her faith to its core, perhaps beyond repair.And for all this, Hell’s fury is not satisfied. Only total destruction of the Styles’ family is acceptable.But is the Mighty Bashnar as strong as he thinks he is? Or will he discover that “God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty”? (1 Corinthians 1:27)

Fisher of Men


Pam Rhodes - 2012
    Stephen's, Dunbridge, under the leadership of the formidable Rev. Margaret Prowse, is getting a new curate. The whole congregation is abuzz as the shy but earnest Neil Fisher arrives to take up his very first post.Though intimidated by Margaret, he is determined to overcome his shyness and immediately sets out to meet the congregation. As often occurs when a man of the cloth is single, his mission becomes somewhat sidetracked when his attention is first drawn to Ros, the spiky single mum who looks after the vicarage garden, and then commandeered by Wendy, leader of the church music group, who is determined to bag herself a vicar for a husband. And if that isn't enough, he also has to contend with his opinionated mother, who strongly disapproves of her son's vocation.Featuring a charming mix of colorful characters, Fisher of Men transports readers to the quaint village of Dunbridge where the quiet miracle of life is revealed.

Dark Moon


Alton Gansky - 2002
    president requests the help of astronomer Marcus Stiller.

I Heart Bloomberg


Melody Carlson - 2008
    No male roommates. But that’s ok, with the right ad she’ll pull in some girls, their rent and if she’s lucky, she won’t have to go to work any time soon.For their part, Anna, Lelani, and Megan all have their reasons for wanting to move in: Anna has got to get out from under her overprotective parents; Lelani can’t take another day in her aunt’s tiny crackerbox house overflowing with toddlers and Megan needs a place free of her current roommate from Hades. Though they come with assorted extra baggage filled with broken hearts and dreams, they will discover they also have a vast array of hidden strengths.As they struggle to become the women they want to be, they’ll find new hope and maybe even Kendall will learn a thing or two about life, love and the true meaning of friendship.

Courageous


Randy Alcorn - 2011
    As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, and their partners willingly stand up to the worst the world can offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all they can muster as dads. But they're quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark. They know that God desires to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but their children are beginning to drift farther and farther away from them. Will they be able to find a way to serve and protect those who are most dear to them? When tragedy hits home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God . . . and to their children?

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare


G.K. Chesterton - 1908
    K. Chesterton's surreal masterpiece is a psychological thriller that centers on seven anarchists in turn-of-the-century London who call themselves by the names of the days of the week. Chesterton explores the meanings of their disguised identities in what is a fascinating mystery and, ultimately, a spellbinding allegory.As Jonathan Lethem remarks in his Introduction, The real characters are the ideas. Chesterton's nutty agenda is really quite simple: to expose moral relativism and parlor nihilism for the devils he believes them to be. This wouldn't be interesting at all, though, if he didn't also show such passion for giving the devil his due. He animates the forces of chaos and anarchy with every ounce of imaginative verve and rhetorical force in his body.

The Screwtape Letters


C.S. Lewis - 1942
    Lewis's The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written.

This Is This Country: The official book of the BAFTA award-winning show


Kerry Mucklowe - 2019
     All the best,Kerry and Kurtanp.s. Kurtan wants to make it clear that although this newsletter is in book format it does not make him any of the following:Book WormBook bummerBoffinNerd alertThe lion, the witch and the book wormp.p.s If you don't buy this newsletter that's fine, but we are getting a percent of the profits to donate to the Kerry Mucklowe eating fund, so if you don't buy it I'll basically starve. Which is fine if your conscience can deal with that utter headf***.