Spiritual Seeker Reader Type
Fall 2024 Book Recommendations
This fall, Spiritual Seeker Reader Types have an enriching selection of new book releases that promise to inspire, uplift, and deepen their faith journey. Whether you're looking for insightful nonfiction that explores religious wisdom, devotional books to guide daily practice, or Christian fiction that weaves powerful themes of grace and redemption, the Fall 2024 lineup offers something for every believer. These new titles invite you to reflect, renew, and connect more deeply with your spiritual path, making them perfect companions for the season of transformation and growth.
december new release
Christmas in Bethel
by Richard Paul Evans
From Richard Paul Evans, the New York Times bestselling author of The Christmas Promise and The Christmas Box--"the most popular holiday tale since Tiny Tim" (Newsweek)--a new novel celebrating the life-changing power of the holiday spirit.
Leigh Beth Stilton has never liked the holidays. After growing up in an unstable home, escaping an abusive marriage, and witnessing daily tragedies as an EMT, Leigh just can't bring herself to care about Christmas cheer. In fact, she's so convinced she's not worth loving that one winter's eve, she decides she can't go on--until she comes across a book called Bethel and starts to read.
Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God
by Catherine Nixey
"A brilliant book." --The Times, Best of the Year
From a celebrated classicist and author of The Darkening Age ("[a] ballista-bolt of a book"--New York Times Book Review), a biography of the many, diverse variations of Jesus who thrived in early Christian traditions--and how they were lost until just one "true" Christ survived.
Contrary to the teachings of the church today, in the first several centuries of Christianity's existence, there was no consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered. Instead, there were many different Christs. One had a twin brother and traveled to India; another consorted with dragons. One particularly terrifying Christ scorned his parents and killed those who opposed him.
Every Home a Foundation: Experiencing God Through Your Everyday Routines
by Phylicia Masonheimer
"The home is the "primary seat of discipleship" from which Christians can best serve God, according to this graceful guide...Masonheimer makes a creative, open-minded case that the domestic and the divine need not be mutually exclusive." --Publisher's Weekly
What if our homes and the work that goes on inside them are not "in the way" of our calling but are instead the way to live well and disciple effectively? Reimagine the Christian home as the firm foundation of a life filled with faith, joy, contentment, and belonging, even in the midst of everyday tasks.
In Every Home a Foundation, Phylicia Masonheimer invites readers to reconsider their view of home. The Christian home is an image of both a coming spiritual reality and the existing spiritual reality of our family, the church. Through Christ, we can heal and build a home that brings joy to us and love to others.
Cloaked in Beauty
by Karen Witemeyer
november new release
Across the Ages
by Gabrielle Meyer
Bible Translations for Everyone: A Guide to Finding a Bible That's Right for You
by Tim Wildsmith
Bible Translations for Everyone is a fun and engaging guide in which pastor, professor, and popular YouTuber Tim Wildsmith will help you navigate the complex world of Bible translations.
Have you ever wondered why there are so many translations of the Bible? It can be overwhelming and challenging to make sense of the differences, similarities, strengths, and weakness of each. With over 400 English translations to choose from, how do you know one is right for you? This book is here to help. Chapter by chapter, it tells the story of many different versions of the Bible, including information about their historical context, the people who translated them, and what makes them unique.
Cherished Belonging: The Healing Power of Love in Divided Times
by Gregory Boyle
At a time when society is more fractured than ever before, beloved Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle invites us to see the world through a new lens of connection and build the loving community that we long to live in--a perfect message for readers of Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Richard Rohr.
Over the past thirty years, Gregory Boyle has transformed tens of thousands of lives through his work as the founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. The program runs on two unwavering principles: 1) We are all unshakably good (no exceptions), and 2) we belong to each other (no exceptions).
Boyle believes that these two ideas allow all of us to cultivate a new way of seeing.
An Honorable Deception
by Roseanna M White
I Think I Was Murdered
by Colleen Coble - Rick Acker
"It's a high-octane thriller with the grounding touches of Katrina's Norwegian heritage, the hygge of North Haven, and a very sweet romance between two likable, vulnerable people. Romantic suspense comfort food--just like waffles with cloudberry cream." --KIRKUS
This timely, high-concept novel delves into the impact of AI on a grieving widow who uses a chatbot to "talk" to her dead husband. What she never expects is the response when she asks it to tell her something she doesn't know: I think I was murdered.
Reading a novel from bestselling authors Colleen Coble and Rick Acker feels akin to watching a BBC mystery series: by the end of the first scene you can relax, knowing you're in the capable hands of a story that will have a complex puzzle, character-driven plot, and satisfying reveal.
Just a year ago, Katrina Berg was at the pinnacle of her career. She was a rising star in the AI chatbot start-up everyone was talking about, married with an adoring husband, and had more money than she knew how to spend. Then her world combusted. Her husband, Jason, was killed in a fiery car crash. Her CEO was indicted, and, as the company's legal counsel, Katrina faces tough questions as the Feds take over and lock her out of her office. The final blow is the passing of her beloved grandmother.
A Million Little Miracles: Rediscover the God Who Is Bigger Than Big, Closer Than Close, and Gooder Than Good
by Mark Batterson
The New York Times bestselling author of Win the Day reminds us of the millions of miracles God performs every day and inspires us to live with a clearer sense of identity and purpose.
Think you've never experienced a miracle? With all due respect, you have never not. In fact, you are one!
There never has been--and there never will be--anyone else like you. That isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you. Your fingerprint, eyeprint, and voiceprint are unlike anyone else's. Simply put, you matter to God.
The Queen's Cook
by Tessa Afshar
October New Release
Lookin' for Love
by Susen Edwards
Based on a compelling and sometimes tragic true story, this novel follows young mother Ava from the go-go bars of the 1970s to the heart of Florida's drug trade to a Kenyan prison to, ultimately, a place of forgiveness, faith, and love through recovery.
Inspired by a gripping true story, Lookin' for Love begins in 1963, when Ava, nineteen and pregnant, marries a violent alcoholic and is disowned by her abusive mother. She bears two sons, leaves her husband, and turns to go-go dancing to provide for her children, using alcohol and drugs to numb herself to the degrading work. Then she meets Mike, a charismatic drug dealer who promises to give her "a beautiful life." They move to Florida and begin working for The Crew, one of the largest drug smuggling organizations in the country. The Crew sends Ava and Mike to Kenya to find farmers to grow marijuana--but while they're there, their home is raided, they're charged with international drug smuggling, and Ava is sentenced to serve time in a Kenyan prison.
I Want to Trust You, But I Don't: Moving Forward When You're Skeptical of Others, Afraid of What God Will Allow, and Doubtful of Your Own Discernment
by Lysa TerKeurst
New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst shows you what to do with your skepticism and distrust so you can heal from past betrayals and move forward with strength and resilience.
Trust is the oxygen of all human relationships. But it's also what trips you up after you've been burned. Maybe a friend constantly lets you down. A leader or organization you respect turns out to be different than they portray themselves to be. A spouse cheats on you. A family member betrays you. You're exhausted by other people's choices and starting to question your own discernment. And you're wondering, If God let this happen, can he even be trusted?
Even After Everything: The Spiritual Practice of Knowing the Risks and Loving Anyway
by Stephanie Duncan Smith
"Oh, I love this book. . . . Honest and hopeful, masterfully written, both a balm and a bolstering."--Shauna Niequist, New York Times bestselling author
Exquisitely told and urgently resonant, Even After Everything is a love letter to anyone who has opened their heart only to be hurt. Stephanie Duncan Smith proposes that it's not through grit or forced resilience that you will find a way forward, but through receiving the full spectrum of our lives, just as we receive the empathy of God-with-us in every moment.
Duncan Smith's disorientation began when she lost her first pregnancy on the winter solstice, just as the world readied to celebrate its most historic birth on Christmas. Then a new yet uncertain pregnancy unfolded parallel to the pandemic, until nearly one year to the day of her loss, she gave birth to her daughter at the peak of mortality in their city. These contradictions compelled Duncan Smith into a desperate search for steadiness, which she found in the liturgical year as a grounding force and the promise that we are seen by God in every season.
Healing What's Within: Coming Home to Yourself--And to God--When You're Wounded, Weary, and Wandering
by Chuck Degroat - Cook Alison Cook Alison
We can't always control what happens to us. But we can discover how to heal the hidden hurt it leaves behind.
If you're like many of us, you carry a weight of buried pain. Despite looking put together on the outside, you feel secretly fractured within. While you appear strong and resilient on the outside, inside a storm brews of all the ways you've been hurt or harmed. There's a constant churn of unprocessed feelings of shame, anger, grief, or loneliness. And your body tells the story of its struggles in a myriad of aches and ailments. Little by little, you find yourself becoming disconnected from who you truly are. Not knowing what to do with your suffering and fearing you'll be hurt again, you've learned to cope, to numb and suppress the ache within.
Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything
by Julia Baird
'A powerful book from one of my favorite writers on something we all need more of...and could give more of.' -- Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy
From the bestselling author of Phosphorescence comes a beautiful and timely exploration of that most mysterious but necessary of human qualities: grace.
Grace is hard to define. It can be found when we create ways to find meaning and dignity in connection with each other, building on our shared humanity, being kinder, bigger, better with each other. If, in its crudest interpretation, karma is getting what you deserve, then grace is the opposite: forgiving the unforgivable, favoring the undeserving, loving the unlovable.