Summer Reading

Summer holidays and long balmy (we hope) evenings hopefully provide more opportunity for relaxation and reading.   What about some good Christian fiction or biographies?  Or if you are a more thoughtful reader, could this be the opportunity to get your teeth into some current theological issue such as emergent church, or different views on the atonement; or maybe to read some Christian classics.

re:fresh books & christian resources has them all!   It's Summer Sale includes books on leadership, fiction and biography (See details below).   There are more books in the Fiction for a Fiver category, a new series of fiction for £6.00 and an excellent fiction series for teenage girls which covers issues such as self-harming, alcohol and sex in the form of novels.  Click HERE for details.

And don't forget our "Take it and Leave it" initiative:  Take a good Christian book on holiday with you and if your hotel or accommodation has a book exchange corner, leave it behind for somebody else to read.  We recommend Christian fiction with a good storyline and a clear Gospel message, like The Shack, or biographies such as Tony Anthony's Taming the Tiger.

Offers on Christian Fiction

The Last Christian by David Gregory
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Abigail Caldwell has spent 34 years in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, cut off from civilisation.  She returns to America, only to discover a nation where Christianity has died out.  And another threat looms - The world's leading artificial intelligence industrialist has perfected a technique for downloading the human brain into a silicon form. Brain transplants have begun, and with them comes the promise of eternal existence. Abby and Professor Creighton Daniels, uncover a plot to force the entire planet to convert to this transhuman status. Together, they begin to unravel the conspiracy, attracting the attention of the powerful and devious men behind it. In a race for their lives.

Following the success of her recent novel, White Chocolate Moments, bestselling author Lori Wick returns to with a new series, Big Sky Dreams, set in the vast open spaces of Montana.  Cassidy is Volume 1 in the series.

Token Creek, Montana Territory, 1880 - Cassidy Norton is a fine seamstress who makes her living sewing for others. Amid the bustle of a busy frontier town, her life is rich. What time her business doesn't take, her friends and church family fill.   But Cassidy hasn't always lived in Token Creek and few people know her full story. So she struggles with a nagging unsettledness in her heart.   Cassidy's friend Meg is married to a rancher and has a baby, something Cassidy wants for herself. But that would mean revealing the details of her life. Will Cassidy find the strength to take that risk? And will her own dreams come true?

The Shack by William Young
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If you haven't read it yet you ought to.  The Shack is ideal for our "Take it and Leave it" initiative (See above).  A Christian book, initially rejected by all the major American Publishers, it went on to occupy the Number One Position on the New York Times Paperback Trade Fiction list for nearly a year.

It is a novel about a man whose daughter is abducted; he receives a letter from somebody claiming to be God inviting him to return to the scene of his daughter’s death.   It tackles a variety of issues, but paramount is “how can God allow such suffering?”  The frequent references to a time known as “the Great Sadness” in the hero’s life will strike chords with many readers and the message about forgiveness carries a hard but necessary challenge. 

Dawn of a Thousand Nights: A story of Honour by Tricia Goyer
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World War II Drama.  “I'll wait for you” Libby Conners promised Dan Lukens as World War II tore the two pilots away from each other and the Hawaiian island where they'd fallen in love.   Now, bound by duty to their country and buoyed by the hope that they will be together again, Dan and Libby face grueling tests on opposite sides of the world.   Libby is pressed into service as one of the first female pilots to serve in a time of war, while Dan endures what would become the legendary brutal Bataan Death March in the Philippines.   With tragedy around every corner, the couple must look deep inside to find stamina and a faith that will endure the nightmare of war.

The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers
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All that matters for Cadi Forbes is finding the one man who can set her free from the sin that plagues her days and nights . . . the sin that has stolen her mother's love from her and made her wish she could flee life and its terrible justice.   She knows it's forbidden, that doing so will bring curses down on her - but something deep and instinctive moves her, against all dire warnings, to find the 'sin eater.'   Before their journeys are over, Cadi and the sin eater must face themselves, each other - and the One who will demand all from them in exchange for the answers they seek.

A story of suffering, seeking and redemption.  This is a repackage of Francine Rivers's novel, with a new look and bonus discussion questions.

Sons of Encouragement Omnibus by Francine Rivers
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The five books in Francine Rivers’ Sons of Encouragement series are offered in a single volume.   They are:
   The Priest – Aaron
   The Warrior – Caleb
   The Prince – Jonathan
   The Prophet – Amos
   The Scribe - Silas
Writing their stories as novels, Francine Rivers looks at their characters, their background, the influences on their lives and their words and actions.  She imagines how it would have been like, in order to bring her characters alive.

Visit the shop & see our 'Fiction for a Fiver' & 'Fiction for £6.00' offers

 

Offers on Biography & true stories

Heroes And Contemporaries by Jonathan Aitken
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Question - What do Nicky Gumbel, Winston Churchill, Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Beaverbrook have in common?

Answer – they are all profiled in Heroes And Contemporaries by former cabinet minister, Jonathan Aitken.   In his own career, which took him through 23 years in the House of Commons to the Cabinet, Aitken came close to some of the most intriguing figures in British politics including Harold Wilson, Margaret Thatcher and Michael Portillo - all profiled in these pages.  During his time in prison, Aitken was visited by several of his subjects including Lord Longford and Nicky Gumbel.

Hostage in Iraq by Norman Kember
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On 26 November 2005, Norman Kember and two other peace activists were taken hostage in Baghdad.  He was held captive for four months until his dramatic release by a multinational military raid.  Written with honesty and emotion, Norman Kember describes in detail his four month ordeal, during which he was imprisoned in a small room and chained to the two Canadian peace activists, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden, and the American Tom Fox, who was later killed by his captors. Kember experiences fear, loneliness, boredom, and at one point, contemplated suicide. Yet his wry sense of humour never quite deserts him.

The Cross & the Switchblade by David Wilkerson
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Still a best-seller, even though it was written nearly half a century ago.  The tortured face of a young killer, one of seven boys on trial for a brutal murder, moved David Wilkerson on his lonely crusade to the most dangerous streets in the world.    Violent gangs ruled by warlords, drug pushers and pimps held the streets of New York's ghettoes in an iron grip. It was into this world that David Wilkerson stepped, armed only with the simple message of God's love and the promise of the Holy Spirit's power.    Then the miracles began to happen.  The Cross and the Switchblade has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and was made into a successful feature film.

Run Baby Run by Nicky Cruz
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Another long-running best-seller.  Nicky Cruz was one of the most feared gang leaders in New York but an encounter with David Wilkerson (See The Cross and the Switchblade, above) led Nicky to open his life to Christ - an incredible conversion that amazed all who knew him.  It is a story of tribal warfare, loyalty and betrayal, sex, drugs and murder and yet it also reveals the lonely, confused heart of a man who was inwardly running scared.

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
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And yet another long-running best-seller!   As the Nazi forces swept across Europe, a quiet watchmaker's family in Holland risked everything for the sake of others, and for the love of Christ. Despite the danger and threat of discovery, they courageously offered shelter to persecuted Jews. Then a trap brought about the family's arrest. Could God's love shine through, even the horrors of a Holocaust concentration camp?
This is the remarkable true story of Corrie and her sister Betsie's endurance of a Nazi death camp, and their sure hope that God alone is the true hiding place.

Staying Alive - The Paratrooper's Story by John Delaney
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At 19 John Delaney was a tough, highly-trained, finely-honed Parabat - a member of the elite South African Parachute Battalion. He had fought bush wars in Namibia and Angola. The impulse to fight, to demand respect - to kill - burned strong within him. He was a man without boundaries. The girls, the boozing, the drugs and brawling, back in civilian life failed to mask his emptiness. Under the guidance of friends at Rhema Church he discovered Jesus.  John's qualities as leader and self-starter found fresh expression: running crusades in Angola and Zaire, followed by relief work in the refugee camps created by the Rwandan genocide.

Faith like Potatoes by Angus Buchan
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Stephen Lungu was the son of a teenage mother in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). When he was three, his mother ran away, leaving him and his younger brother and sister in the reluctant care of an aunt. By 11 Stephen too had run away, preferring life on the streets. He slept under bridges and scavenged from white folks' dustbins. As a teenager, he was recruited into an urban gang, the Black Shadows, which burgled and mugged with a dream of revolution. When an evangelist came to town, Stephen was sent to fire bomb the event, carrying his bag of bombs and mingling with the crowd. Instead he stayed to listen... 

After the Heavy Rain by Sokreaksa S. Himm
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