Grace. We talk asthough we understand the term. The bank gives us a grace period. The seedy politician falls from grace. Musicians speak of a gracenote. We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful. We use the wordfor hospitals, baby girls, kings, and premeal prayers. We talk as though weknow what grace means. But do wereally understand it? Have we settled for wimpy grace? It politely occupies aphrase in a hymn, fits nicely on a church sign. Never causes trouble or demandsa response. When asked, "Do you believe in grace?" who could say no? Max Lucadoasks a deeper question: Have you been changed by grace? Shaped by grace?Strengthened by grace? Emboldened by grace? Softened by grace? Snatched by thenape of your neck and shaken to your senses by grace? God's gracehas a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A white-water, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you. It rewires you. Frominsecure to God secure. From regret riddled to better-because-of-it. Fromafraid to die to ready to fly. Grace isthe voice that calls us to change and then gives us the power to pull it off. Let's makecertain grace gets you. Endorsements for GRACE: "God's grace--His unconditionally loving, unmerited favor--issometimes difficult for people to grasp, even though each one of us is indesperate need of it. But in Max Lucado's new book, GRACE, it is completely embraceable and understandable. ThroughLucado's characteristic narrative style and profound biblical understanding, welearn that God's grace is truly much more than we deserve and greater than weimagine. " --Dr. Charles F. Stanley "Max Lucado has blended his creative writing style withhonesty about how he has experienced God's grace, mercy and forgiveness in hisown times of failure and despair. Youwill find comfort as Max shines the light of the Word of God revealing thatJesus Christ is truly the only hope that brings everlasting peace." --Franklin Graham, President and CEO, Samaritan's Purse, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association "Reading Max Lucado on grace is like hearing Warren Buffetton money or Julia Child on food--it's a subject he spent a lifetime falling inlove with." --John Ortberg, pastor and author, Menlo Park PresbyterianChurch "Few writers are better than Max Lucado, no subject isbetter than God's grace." --Randy Alcorn, author of Heaven and If God is Good "Max gives us encouragement, hope and a needed reminderthat the grace we all possess as followers of Jesus should empower us to movemountains, vs simply settling for pushing wimpy molehills." --Brad Lomenick, President and Executive Director, Catalyst "Max offers up a biblical vision of God's grace that comesdrenched in sweat and with a set of six-pack abs; a life-defining newness andrelationship-refining kindness straight from the heart of God." --Tim Kimmel, author of GraceBased Parenting "Some writers aim for the mind, others for the heartand a small number for the soul. With his latest book, 'Grace, ' Max Lucado hitsthe trifecta, touching on all three." -- Cal Thomas, Syndicated and USA Today Columnist and Fox News Contributor "If you love the writings of Max Lucado, this will probablybecome your favorite." -- Stephen Arterburn, Founder and Chairman of New LifeMinistries, host of "New Life Live " and best selling author "I can think of no more needed message for weary peopleeverywhere, and no better writer than Max Lucado to paint so gloriously thehope that "Christ in you" affords." --Louie Giglio, creator of Passion Conferences and pastor, Passion City Church

"An absolute must read." —Buzzfeed "A gripping portrayal of the South's inherent racism and a love story for queer Black girls." —Teen Vogue Family secrets, a swoon-worthy romance, and a slow-burn mystery collide in We Deserve Monuments, the award-winning debut novel from Jas Hammonds exploring the ways racial violence can ripple down through generations. What’s more important: Knowing the truth or keeping the peace? Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two. While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved. As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

'Do monsters always stay in the book where they were born? Are they content to live out their lives on paper, and never step foot into the real world?' The Villa Diodati, on the shore of Lake Geneva, 1816: the Year without Summer. As Byron, Polidori, and Mr and Mrs Shelley shelter from the unexpected weather, old ghost stories are read and new ghost stories imagined. Born by the twin brains of the Shelleys is Frankenstein, one of the most influential tales of horror of all time. In a remote mountain house, high in the French Alps, an author broods on Shelley's creation. Reality and perception merge, fuelled by poisoned thoughts. Humankind makes monsters; but who really creates who? This is a book about reason, the imagination, and the creative act of reading and writing. Marcus Sedgwick's ghostly, menacing novel celebrates the legacy of Mary Shelley's literary debut in its bicentenary year.

The Future We Deserve is a collection of 100 essays from people of all walks of life discussing our world from amazingly different perspectives. Utopia or oblivion, plenty or famine, freedom or slavery? We do not know, but we do know that there is a vital thread of insight which emerges when people think together about what they really want, what matters most to them, and how we are all going to live in just a few years.

A renowned Harvard professor's brilliant, sweeping, inspiring account of the role of justice in our society--and of the moral dilemmas we face as citizens What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Is killing sometimes morally required? Is it possible, or desirable, to legislate morality? Do individual rights and the common good conflict? Michael J. Sandel's "Justice" course is one of the most popular and influential at Harvard. Up to a thousand students pack the campus theater to hear Sandel relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and this fall, public television will air a series based on the course. Justice offers readers the same exhilarating journey that captivates Harvard students. This book is a searching, lyrical exploration of the meaning of justice, one that invites readers of all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways. Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, patriotism and dissent, the moral limits of markets—Sandel dramatizes the challenge of thinking through these con?icts, and shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well. Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise—an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.

Much of contemporary social and political theory has reduced the concept of desert to a minor role. The work of John Rawls is the prime example. Recently some philosophers have argued that the notion merits a more central place in social and political theory. This reader brings togetheropposing positions and arguments, thus stimulating debate over the meaning and significance of desert in contemporary thought. The book includes eight classical and twenty-two contemporary readings on the concept.