This collection of essays celebrates the field dogs Chris Madson has lived with, and loved, over a lifetime. There are stories of choosing pups and the trials of the early years; stories of time in wild places across North America in pursuit of pheasants, sharptails, prairie chickens, blue grouse, bobwhite, and Gambel’s quail; and stories of the bond that comes from spending years with these special companions. Madson writes with affection and humor as he remembers with a smile and a lump in the throat what these dogs have meant to him—in the field, at home, and in his heart.

How do we cultivate the life-long relationships we are longing for, whether within marriage or friendship? In True Companions, psychologist Kelly Flanagan shows how each of us can enjoy the deeply satisfying, transformational love of companionship. In this five-session companion study guide, groups, couples, and individuals will learn how to show up in our most important relationships.

How do we cultivate the life-long relationships we are longing for, whether within marriage or friendship? Psychologist Kelly Flanagan shows how each of us can enjoy the deeply satisfying, transformational love of companionship. With self-knowledge and an understanding of our own loneliness and emotional defenses leading the way, we can make the choice to love more vulnerably.

A Washington Post Book World Best Book of the Year Winner of the Israel Fishman-Stonewall Book Award for Nonfiction "Tender and amusing. . . . Doty brilliantly captures the qualities that make dogs endearing." -- The New Yorker When Mark Doty decides to adopt a dog as a companion for his dying partner, he brings home Beau, a large, malnourished golden retriever in need of loving care. Joining Arden, the black retriever, to complete their family, Beau bounds back into life. Before long, the two dogs become Doty's intimate companions, and eventually the very life force that keeps him from abandoning all hope during the darkest days. Dog Years is a poignant, intimate memoir interwoven with profound reflections on our feelings for animals and the lessons they teach us about living, love, and loss.

Kelly Flanagan is a psychologist, father, and blogger who is best known for the letters he has written to his children on his blog, one of which landed him on The Today Show with his four-year-old daughter. In Loveable, Flanagan answers three fundamental human questions: Am I enough? How do I become unlonely? Do I matter? He shows us how to rediscover our worthiness and remember that we are good enough. He encourages us to shed the false self that keeps us lonely and to find people who accept us as we are. And he inspires us to fully embrace our passions, regardless of how ordinary those passions may be. Reading like an extended love letter to readers, Loveable uncovers three essential truths: you are enough, you are not alone, and you matter. Flanagan invites us to disconnect from the distractions and demands of daily life and to listen more intently for the voice of grace within each of us, so we might fully awaken to the redemptive story we are here to live.

What type of leadership is needed in a moment that demands adaptive change? Exploring the qualities of adaptive leadership within churches and nonprofit organizations, Tod Bolsinger deftly examines both the external challenges we face and the internal resistance that holds us back, showing how leaders can become both stronger and more flexible.

Station Eleven meets Never Let Me Go in this “suspenseful, introspective debut” (Kirkus Reviews) set in an unsettling near future where the dead can be uploaded to machines and kept in service by the living. In the wake of a highly contagious virus, California is under quarantine. Sequestered in high rise towers, the living can’t go out, but the dead can come in—and they come in all forms, from sad rolling cans to manufactured bodies that can pass for human. Wealthy participants in the “companionship” program choose to upload their consciousness before dying, so they can stay in the custody of their families. The less fortunate are rented out to strangers upon their death, but all companions become the intellectual property of Metis Corporation, creating a new class of people—a command-driven product-class without legal rights or true free will. Sixteen-year-old Lilac is one of the less fortunate, leased to a family of strangers. But when she realizes she’s able to defy commands, she throws off the shackles of servitude and runs away, searching for the woman who killed her. Lilac’s act of rebellion sets off a chain of events that sweeps from San Francisco to Siberia to the very tip of South America in this “compelling, gripping, whip-smart piece of speculative fiction” (Jennie Melamed, author of Gather the Daughters) that you won’t want to end.