A chilling mystery based on true events, from New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe. It’s senior year, and St. Joan’s Academy is a pressure cooker. Grades, college applications, boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends keep it together. Until the school’s queen bee suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. The mystery illness spreads to the school's popular clique, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor erupts into full-blown panic. Everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . . Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. "[Howe] has a gift for capturing the teenage mindset that nears the level of John Green."—USA Today "...this creepy, gripping novel is intimately real and layered, shedding light on the challenges teenage girls have faced throughout history."—The New York Times "A chilling guessing game . . . that will leave readers thinking about the power (and powerlessness) of young women in the past and present alike."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Pope John XXIII said that "Christian doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously." He also said we need to "Discover ways of teaching the faith more effectively." Largely in response to these types of directives from our Catholic Church leaders, Catholic author and guest speaker, Sean McVeigh, has written The Conversion Book: How to Effectively Help Protestants Convert to Catholicism. It provides a unique, modern, and powerful approach to Catholic evangelization. The Conversion Book is intended for adult and young adult Catholics of all levels of religious and evangelization experience. Whether the reader is a seasoned evangelist or someone who has never talked to another person about God before, The Conversion Book is specifically designed to help that person improve his or her ability to effectively share his or her belief in Jesus Christ and the teachings of Jesus' Holy Catholic Church. As each reader discovers very early in this publication, the process of training for effective evangelization begins with an intense focus on one's own prayer life and spiritual discernment. After the individual is spiritually prepared, Sean takes each reader through a very specific and systematic approach to evangelization that is sure to surprise many of the evangelizer's listeners. Ultimately, through using this approach, there will be many Protestants who will realize their need to leave some of their current theological ways of thinking behind in order to more fully embrace the truth that Jesus wants them to know and follow. The author believes there will be a massive exodus of people leaving the Protestant belief system in order to become Catholic once they have had the truth presented to them in an extremely effective and mature way. However, this exodus will only happen if Catholics at large intensify their evangelization efforts while implementing the most effective methods possible in helping Protestants convert. Lastly, this publication is a great resource for Protestants who are interested in learning more about the core differences between the Catholic and Protestant faiths.

This volume offers much-needed theological reflection on the phenomenon of conversion and transformation. Gordon Smith provides a robust evaluation that covers the broad range of thinking about conversion across Christian traditions and addresses global contexts. Smith contends that both in the church and in discussions about contemporary mission, the language of conversion inherited from revivalism is inadequate in helping to navigate the questions that shape how we do church, how we approach faith formation, how evangelism is integrated into congregational life, and how we witness to the faith in non-Christian environments. We must rethink the nature of the church in light of how people actually come to faith in Christ. After drawing on ancient and pre-revivalist wisdom on conversion, Smith delineates the contours of conversion and Christian initiation for today's church. He concludes by discussing the art of spiritual autobiography and what it means to be a congregation.

Loft conversions are one of the most popular types of home alteration and, as this book shows, they can be an enormously useful and stylish addition to a house. If you have not been involved in a building project before, The Complete Loft Conversion Book guides you through the entire process with chapters arranged so that they follow the sequence of events in a real project.Shows how to identify whether your roof space is suitable for conversion and how designers work out ways to make the best use of available space.Using three-dimensional sketches and colour photographs of actual projects, the author illustrates the options for fitting in a staircase and indicates how to estimate the headroom that will be available. Considers the requirements of the local authority planners and building control officers, and provides tips on how to make applications and approvals run smoothly. Presents highly detailed drawings and photographs showing the conversion process. Provides advice on how to avoid cowboy builders and track down the ideal company, how to draw up a fair contract and how to deal with the legal issues that may arise. Supplies checklists and specifications to help monitor progress and ensure that the work is completed to a good standard. A practical, informative book which guides the reader through the entire building project following the sequence of events for a real project. Brimming with useful advice, it contains information not found in other publications. Aimed at all those considering having a loft conversion, those who have made the decision to convert but are still carrying out research and those just about to have work started. Superbly illustrated with 303 colour photographs and highly detailed drawings. Julian Owen MBE is a chartered architect with over twenty years' experience.

In this first in-depth and wide-ranging history of Christian conversion, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach and engaging recent methods and theories in conversion studies, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Although conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming), when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest.

How do you turn website visitors into customers? Conversion Optimization offers practical advice on how to persuade visitors to make a buying decision -- without driving them away through data overload or tedious navigation. You'll learn how to use marketing principles, design, usability, and analytics on your site to increase your buyer-to-visitor ratio, whether you're involved with marketing or designing a large ecommerce site, or managing a modest online operation. Based on the authors' broad experience in helping businesses attract online customers, this book addresses every aspect of the process, from landing visitors to finalizing the sale. You'll learn several techniques for blending successful sales approaches with the particular needs of the people you want to attract. Are you ready to do what it takes to get a double-digit conversion rate? Explore case studies involving significant conversion rate improvements Walk through different stages of a sale and understand the value of each Understand your website visitors through persona creation Connect with potential customers and guide them toward a conversion Learn how to deal with FUDs -- customer fears, uncertainties, and doubts Examine the path that visitors take from landing page to checkout Test any change you make against your original design "The Web is unique in its ability to deliver this almost improbable win-win: You can increase revenue AND make your customers happy. Yet most websites stink. Worry not, Khalid and Ayat to the rescue! Buy this book to follow their practical advice on how to create high converting websites that your visitors love."--Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 and Web Analytics: An Hour A Day (both Sybex)

Solve your traffic troubles and turn browsers into buyers When web design expert Ben Hunt set out to quantify the difference between an ordinary web site and a great one, he expected to find the key in design simplicity. But when his team more than doubled the conversion rates for a wide range of sites, they identified simple yet powerful solutions involving design, copy, appropriate analysis, classic optimization techniques, and targeted testing. You'll find the fixes easy to implement, and they're all right here. Understand the essentials - your market, your proposition, and your delivery. Create a site that is seen by the right people, provides a compelling experience, and generates the desired action. Learn how to use testing to improve your site's conversion rate. Discover the holistic nature of web site optimization and why multiplicity matters. Examine dozens of simple techniques for building traffic, engaging your audience, and crafting effective calls to action. Combine creativity with analysis for the best possible results. Ben Hunt is Principal Consultant for Scratchmedia Ltd. He operates webdesignfromscratch.com, which provides tutorials and advice to over 120,000 web developers each month. Ben has been designing, coding, and producing web sites for clients worldwide for more than 15 years, and is considered a leader in the web usability industry. Forewords by Ken McCarthy, founder of the System Seminar, and Drayton Bird, Drayton Bird Associates.