Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are


Alex Harris - 2010
    You are changing the world around you.But you are tired and burned out. You feel called to do the extraordinary for God.But you feel stuck in the ordinary. Do Hard Things inspired thousands of young people around the world to make the most of the teen years. Now Alex and Brett Harris are back and ready to tackle the questions that Do Hard Things inspired: How do I get started? What do I do when I get discouraged? What’s the best way to inspire others? Filled with stories and insights from Alex, Brett, and other real-life rebelutionaries, Start Here is a powerful and practical guide to doing hard things, right where you are. Are you ready to take the next step and blast past mediocrity for the glory of God? START HERE.

I've Been Thinking . . .Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life


Maria Shriver - 2018
    Shriver’s wisdom will fill you up.” —Hoda Kotb, coanchor, The Today ShowA book of reflections for those seeking wisdom, guidance, encouragement, and inspiration on the road to a meaningful life. As a prominent woman juggling many roles, Maria Shriver knows just how surprising, unpredictable, and stressful everyday life can be. In this moving and powerful book, she shares inspiring quotes, prayers, and reflections designed to get readers thinking, get them feeling, get them laughing, and help them in their journey to what she calls The Open Field--a place of acceptance, purpose, and passion--a place of joy.I've Been Thinking . . . is ideal for anyone at any point in her life. Whether you feel like you've got it all together or like it's all falling apart--whether you're taking stock of your life or simply looking to recharge, this is the book you will turn to again and again. Spend the weekend reading it cover to cover, or keep it on your nightstand to flip to the chapter you need most. Like talking with a close friend, it's the perfect daily companion—an exceptional gift for someone looking to move forward in life with hope and grace.

To Heaven and Back: The True Story of a Doctor's Extraordinary Walk with God


Mary C. Neal - 2011
    Mary Neal's walk with God has been both ordinary and extraordinary, brimming with the gift and privilege of being touched by God in visible and very tangible ways. She is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon, a wife, and a mother who has experienced joy as well as great sorrow and death. She experienced life after death and, despite her scientific training, she believes the answer to each one of these questions is a definitive yes. She drowned on a South American river and went to Heaven. She conversed with angels. She returned to Earth, in part, to tell her story to others and help them find their way back to God. In this book , Dr. Neal shares the captivating details of her life in which she has experienced not just one miracle, but many. Her story is both compelling and thought provoking. Her experiences provide confirmation that miracles still occur, shows how God keeps His promises and why there is sufficient reason to live by faith. Dr. Neal's message is fundamentally one of hope.

Burned Alive: A Shocking True Story of Betrayal, Kidnapping, and Murder


Kieran Crowley - 1999
    A business major with wild black hair, long polished fingernails, and a new Honda her loving father had bought her, Kim took good care of herself and looked forward to a bright future. But on her way home in the early morning darkness of that Ash Wednesday, Kim was abducted-and her mysterious kidnappers would be the last people to see her alive.Scorching BetrayalAs Kim's father, wealthy computer executive Tommy Antonakos, launched a widespread, feverish search for his daughter, he had no idea that her abductors were right under his nose. A cold mastermind had ordered had ordered Kim to be bound, gagged and left in the freezing basement of an abandoned house, hoping to extract ransom from her father. When the plans fell through, he and his henchman panicked, returned to the basement and doused a near-frozen Kim with gasoline, setting her on fire.Burned AliveWhen the fire was extinguished, all that was left of the lovely coed were her charred, lifeless remains. What would drive the kidnappers to commit such a cruel and senseless murder? How did their plans to cover their tracks result in another killing? And how were the murderers finally snared? Read all of the fascinating facts in a startling expose of extortion, murder, and ultimate justice.

Honeymoon With A Killer


Don Lasseter - 2009
    prosecutor to tell the shocking true story of Rebecca Cleland, a manipulative, money-hungry woman who plots and carries out her husband's murder with the help of members of her own family. Original.

The Witness


Nicola Tallant - 2020
    

The Duck Commander Family


Willie Robertson - 2012
    Family. Ducks—in that order. This book gives readers an up-close and personal, behind-the-scenes look at the family in the exploding A&E® show—Duck Dynasty®. This Louisiana bayou family operates Duck Commander, a booming family business that has made them millions. You’ll hear all about the Robertson clan from Willie and what it was like growing up in the Robertson household. You’ll sample some of Willie’s favorite family recipes from Phil, Kay, and even some of his own concoctions; and you’ll get to know the beautiful Robertson women. You’ll hear from Korie about the joys and hardships of raising a family, running a business, and wrangling the Robertson men while staying fashionable and beautiful inside and out. Discover more about the family dynamics between brothers Willie, Jase, Jep, and parents Phil and Kay. You’ll even meet a fourth brother who isn’t in the show.The popularity of Duck Dynasty is skyrocketing, garnering a Wednesday-night top two finish in all of cable. The book releases in time for season two of the show in October 2012.

Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland


Amanda Berry - 2015
    . . . I’ve been kidnapped, and I’ve been missing for ten years.”   A horrifying story rapidly unfolded. Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver, had separately lured Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight to his home, where he kept them chained. In the decade that followed, the three were raped, psychologically abused, and threatened with death. Berry had a daughter—Jocelyn—by their captor.   Drawing upon their recollections and the diary kept by Amanda Berry, Berry and Gina DeJesus describe a tale of unimaginable torment, and Pulitzer Prize–winning Washington Post reporters Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan interweave the events within Castro’s house with original reporting on efforts to find the missing girls. The full story behind the headlines—including details never previously released on Castro’s life and motivations—Hope is a harrowing yet inspiring chronicle of two women whose courage, ingenuity, and resourcefulness ultimately delivered them back to their lives and families.

Shine Bright: 60 Days to Becoming a Girl Defined by God


Kristen Clark - 2021
    But our worth isn't defined by society. It's defined by our loving God, who made us and calls us his redeemed daughters. God has a good plan for our beauty, femininity, relationships, and identity and wants to help us thrive in his freeing design.That's what Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal have been sharing in their popular books, videos, podcast, and blog. Now they offer this 60-day devotional to help you find your entire identity in Christ. Beautifully designed and filled with uplifting Scripture, sincere encouragement, questions for reflection, some good laughs, and room to journal, Shine Bright makes a lovely and thoughtful gift--for a friend, a mom, a daughter, or yourself!

Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas Treasury: Holiday Stories to Warm the Heart


Jack Canfield - 2001
    Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Christmas Treasury

Worship: The Reason We Were Created-Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer


A.W. Tozer - 2017
    W. Tozer, on one of his favorite subjectsFew subjects invigorated A. W. Tozer like the topic of worship. He saw it—like the church has traditionally—as the sole reason for which creation exists.Worship: The Reason We Were Created features collections from the beloved spiritual writer on this important topic. The church's current worship is emaciated; its thoughts of God are too low. Here is a compilation to raise those thoughts high once more, and provoke the church to true, spiritual worship.Topics include: The act and object of worshipThe Presence of GodWorship throughout the weekFeelings and emotion in worshipMan as a worshipping creatureIf it's true that we are made to worship God, that it is the sole reason that we exist, that we are most alive when we live for His glory, then reading Worship is more than time well spent. It is time invested in the very foundation of your life.

Finding Your Voice: What Every Woman Needs to Live Her God-Given Passions Out Loud


Natalie Grant - 2016
    We all long to live out our divinely designed passions and unique talents, yet too often it becomes so much easier in the face of opposition to stay silent altogether. What if God is calling you to so much more? As a working mom, wife, artist, and abolitionist, Natalie Grant has struggled to live on purpose while battling the worldly demands of keeping up the appearance of perfection. Emerging from her own dark spiral of suffocating inadequacy, Natalie found fresh hope in the truth that God has already given women everything they need to live out their God-given identity, passions, and calling. Finding Your Voice offers the heart-rallying, life-giving truth that a woman’s voice is not an uncalled for interference to be silenced, but a gift to be used for God’s Kingdom purposes. In voice lessons as in life, a strong vocal identity requires us to first stand firm, breath deep, and finally, go for it—loud and clear. With rich scriptural study and personal stories infusing every chapter, Finding Your Voice reveals how to discover your own unique talent, train it according to God’s Word, and start using it for the good of others—without guilt and apology.

Chocolate for a Teen's Soul: Life-Changing Stories For Young Women About Growing Wise and Growing Strong


Kay Allenbaugh - 2000
    She was a stray; my mother found her and brought her home to me. We spent 19 full years together. Always the perfect cat, she died in her sleep when she was growing too frail for fun. She must have known I would never have had the strength to put her to sleep myself. I was (understandably) devastated when she died -- and my phone rang off the hook. Many of my friends had grown up with my cat, too, and were calling to express their grief. The weeks after her death are a weepy blur, but one conversation stands out in my mind. A woman I wasn't very close to called to tell me about the death of her dog. There was something overwhelmingly comforting about her story. Even though she didn't know me or my "kitten" well, her shared experience just made me feel less alone. Shared stories are the idea of Chocolate for a Teen's Soul by Kay Allenbaugh. "Rich stories, like chocolate, not only make you feel good, they can also serve as comfort through confusing times," she writes in her introduction. (Allenbaugh is apparently a chocolate freak; she has also written Chocolatefor Woman's Soul, ...for a Lover's Heart, ...for a Woman's Heart, ...for a Mother's Heart, etc.) Her collected stories, written by women young and old and bundled by theme in chapters like "Onward and Upward," "Making Memories," and "What Is This Thing Called Love?", are not always uplifting -- and therein lies the strength of Chocolate for a Teen's Soul. The emotional range of Allenbaugh's selected stories is impressive. One girl explains how the death of her great-grandfather gave her the strength to ask a popular boy to dance with her. Experiencing death taught her to "make each moment count." Which is also why she is capable of handling it when he turns her down. (Never fear, another cute boy comes along in a moment.) Another young woman writes of a teacher who doubts her poetry skills and forces her to stand up and defend herself for the first time in her life. Yet another girl writes about fear, roller coasters, and her father. There are, of course, the perennially interesting tales of first loves, as well as the now ubiquitous but unfortunately necessary essays on abuse (by a boyfriend) and eating disorders.Allenbaugh wasn't satisfied to leave it at that. She smartly chose to vary the voices in her book. Hence the story written by a mother coming to terms with her daughter growing up. Or the wonderful story of a woman who fled Soviet-occupied Hungary. This "global" story demonstrates the universality of adolescent worries; she, too, thinks about clothes and friends.Allenbaugh has bound together a delightful mix of stories. Her goal, as stated in her introduction, is to mentor teens with her stories, and surely she has succeeded. The bulk of her success lies in her somewhat quirky sensibility. In the middle of Allenbaugh's "Love" chapter is a delightful story, "Grooming Nisha." This is no first-kiss tale but rather the experience of a girl who raises seeing-eye dogs -- caring for them until they are old enough to perform their duties. She details the bittersweet pain of giving Nisha up. There is also a story on the death of a family dog.Which leads me right back to my kitten. Sometimes, especially when you are 14, the word "love" means romantic love. Friends are surely sympathetic if you and your boyfriend break up. But what about if your kitty dies? Adults usually understand that kind of pain better. In Chocolate for a Teen's Soul, Allenbaugh opens up the definition of love and of other experiences. She teaches and offers comfort in the form of shared experience...just like that acquaintance of mine did. --Alexandra Zissu

Sworn to Silence: The Truth Behind Robert Garrow and the Missing Bodies' Case


Jim Tracy - 2021
    Theysearched for, found, and photographed the lifeless bodiesof their client’s victims and then kept it secret. They didso in the face of unendurable pressure from theauthorities and the victims’ families, who suspected thelawyers knew more than they were saying.When the American public eventually learned of thelawyers’ actions, they were horrified, outraged, andvengeful. People could not fathom how two attorneys—fathers of teenage girls themselves—and supposedofficers of the law, could conduct themselves in amanner seemingly beyond any concept of humanity.Today, this landmark legal case is studied and analyzedin law schools worldwide.These events have been indelibly marked in Tracy’s mindsince he was eight years old; in fact, he was present atthe scene of New York state’s largest manhunt after thekiller broke into Tracy’s father’s hunting camp in theAdirondack Mountains. In Sworn to Silence, Tracyweaves together a true crime narrative that should rankwith some of the most compelling American crime storiesof modern times. He does so while taking you—thereader—on a page-turning journey back to the early1970s, unveiling an American serial killer most peoplehave never heard of.

Black Hands: Inside the Bain Family Murders


Martin Van Beynen - 2020
    One lay dead from a single bullet to the head. The other was the only survivor: David Bain. Since then, the country has asked: Who killed the Bain family? David, or his father Robin? And why?Award-winning journalist Martin van Beynen has covered the Bain story closely for decades. His 2017 Stuff podcast, Black Hands - based on the manuscript for this book - topped the charts in New Zealand and around the world and has been downloaded more than 5 million times. Now, his book brings the story completely up to date: exploring the case from start to finish, picking through evidence old and new, plumbing the mysteries and motives, interviewing never-before-spoken-to witnesses andguiding readers through the complex police investigation and court cases, seeking to finally answer the question: Who was the killer?Black Hands is a riveting read from the first word to the last, by a skilled writer who knows his subject inside out.“If anyone can pass judgement it can only be those who sat through the whole trial.” - David Bain in New Idea