In this book, you will encounter a variety of characters whose lives intertwine through the thread of marriage. From the initial stages of infatuation and blossoming love to the decision to marry and the inevitable challenges that follow, each story reflects the myriad ways in which marriage is perceived and lived. Some characters see marriage as a solution to financial woes, believing it can provide stability and security. Others view it as a convenient escape from personal responsibility, or as a social trophy to enhance their status. There are also characters who fear commitment and seek the freedom of an open marriage, and those who enter marriage with pure intentions, only to find themselves at a crossroads of expectation and reality. Despite these varying perspectives, the essence of Many Shades of Marriage is to reveal the profound spiritual significance of this ancient institution. Beyond societal expectations and personal gratification, marriage offers a unique path for soul evolution. Personal accountability plays a big part in handling challenges in marriage, just like anywhere else. Marriage, the sacred institution, cannot be held accountable for individual misconceptions about roles and responsibilities; balancing personal ambitions and playing the roles with aplomb is no easy task. True growth and transformation occur through deep commitment and contemplation shared by two individuals. When couples engage in marriage as friends and partners, they evolve individually and create a nurturing environment for the next generation.

In this book, you will encounter a variety of characters whose lives intertwine through the thread of marriage. From the initial stages of infatuation and blossoming love to the decision to marry and the inevitable challenges that follow, each story reflects the myriad ways in which marriage is perceived and lived. Some characters see marriage as a solution to financial woes, believing it can provide stability and security. Others view it as a convenient escape from personal responsibility, or as a social trophy to enhance their status. There are also characters who fear commitment and seek the freedom of an open marriage, and those who enter marriage with pure intentions, only to find themselves at a crossroads of expectation and reality. Despite these varying perspectives, the essence of Many Shades of Marriage is to reveal the profound spiritual significance of this ancient institution. Beyond societal expectations and personal gratification, marriage offers a unique path for soul evolution. Personal accountability plays a big part in handling challenges in marriage, just like anywhere else. Marriage, the sacred institution, cannot be held accountable for individual misconceptions about roles and responsibilities; balancing personal ambitions and playing the roles with aplomb is no easy task. True growth and transformation occur through deep commitment and contemplation shared by two individuals. When couples engage in marriage as friends and partners, they evolve individually and create a nurturing environment for the next generation.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Thursday Next series comes a “laugh-out-loud funny” (Los Angeles Times) and “brilliantly original” (Booklist, starred review) novel of a man attempting to navigate a color-coded world. “A rich brew of dystopic fantasy and deadpan goofiness.”—The Washington Post Welcome to Chromatacia, where the Colortocracy rules society through a social hierarchy based on one’s limited color perception. In this world, you are what you can see. Eddie Russet wants to move up. When he and his father relocate to the backwater village of East Carmine, his carefully cultivated plans to leverage his better-than-average red perception and marry into a powerful family are quickly upended. Eddie must content with lethal swans, sneaky Yellows, inviolable rules, an enforced marriage to the hideous Violet deMauve, and a risky friendship with an intriguing Grey named Jane who shows Eddie that the apparent peace of his world is as much an illusion as color itself. Will Eddie be able to tread the fine line between total conformity—accepting the path, partner, and career delineated by his hue—and his instinctive curiosity that is bound to get him into trouble?

Families with boys often find the world reacts to them in mock horror. Even though parents love their sons, privately they admit that boys can be a handful to raise--they are boisterous, competitive, reckless, distractable. The challenge of wills between parent and son starts early, and the quest to civilize young bulls may seem hopeless some days. Yet believers know that God has given them children as a gift of heaven, specially chosen for their particular families and marked as a blessing. If that's so, why does it seem so hard? How can we prepare these boys to serve God when it's all we can do to make it through another day? Isn't there a better way? Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching and Appreciating Boys shows the answer is emphatically yes. Written by the parents of six boys, Raising Real Men provides hope and encouragement to families with sons. Starting from the premise that God made boys to become men, Hal and Melanie Young offer Biblical principles and tested, practical ideas for training the manly virtues that can drive parents and teachers up the wall. This is a practical guide to equipping the hearts and minds of boys without breaking or losing your own. "...earthy, realistic, humorous, and scriptural ..." -- Douglas Wilson, author, Future Men "This is just what the doctor ordered for parents who want to raise capable Christian men of character." -- John Rosemond, author, Parenting By The Book

If there’s one thing that New York Times bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Dave Barry is an expert on, it’s raising a daughter. …which means he’s not an expert on much considering the breadth of his knowledge on that subject fills only a single chapter of a book. However, what Dave Barry is good at is giving unsolicited advice on topics he’s definitively not an expert on. In fact, he now has an entire book filled with guidance on things he knows nothing about, including: surviving in the wild, wooing women, cremation, maintaining a scintillating conversation, Justin Bieber, the U.S. Postal Service, enduring the TSA, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, most obviously, being a professional author. With trademark wit and unmatched insight into the insanity of everyday life, Dave Barry presents a series of hilarious, never-before-published essays on the trials and tribulations of living and laughing in the modern age.

In her final novel, “a beautiful and devastating examination of family, society and race” (The New York Times), Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's Black bourgeoisie on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1950s. Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community. With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family's struggle to break the shackles of race and class.

What if God has purposed your marriage for something so much more than "happily ever after?" Since the very beginning, God's design for marriage has been for husbands and wives to be ambassadors of holy love to a hurting world. Still, too many couples stop short at happy and wonder why they feel unsatisfied. Rather than "you and me against the world," God calls each couple to the rich and meaningful mission of "you and me for the world." In Marriage After God, Aaron and Jennifer Smith, popular marriage bloggers at HusbandRevolution.com and UnveiledWife.com, transparently share their own journey of turning a marriage in crisis into a marriage built on Christ's redemptive love. With fresh biblical insight and intimate stories of their own struggles and victories, this book will guide you toward a God-centered, ministry-minded, and thriving marriage. Throughout Marriage After God, you'll learn to: Discover the signature marks of a marriage after God Find principles for building an unshakable marriage foundation Let God's story take the lead in your love story Recognize the tools God has already equipped you with for a missional life together Filled with timeless wisdom, this thorough and practical book will empower you and your spouse to dream, decide, and do as you step hand in hand into God's ultimate purpose for your marriage. God has created your remarkable, romantic, and redemptive relationship to be a powerful light to a dark and hurting world. Let Marriage After God be your invitation to marriage as God intended--a life-saving, hope-inspiring, and transforming force of God's love. Praise for Marriage After God: "This book is an incredible resource for anyone trying to grow or step into a healthier and more life-giving marriage. Aaron and Jen pull no punches; are honest, raw, and authentic; and show that a marriage in pursuit of Jesus can change the world." --Jefferson Bethke, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus > Religion "There is a short list of books I'm stashing away for my three small kiddos to read when they are older--Marriage After God is one of them. Dear couples of the world, you have picked up a treasure! This book will give you clear direction to live out God's will for your marriage. There is no greater gift you can give yourselves than to run after Him together. Marriage After God will show you how!" --Lara Casey, author of Cultivate and Make It Happen