“Olivarez steps into the ‘inbetween’ standing between Mexico and America in these compelling, emotional poems. Written with humor and sincerity” (Newsweek). Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek and NPR. In this “devastating debut” (Publishers Weekly), poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in, with a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch. “The son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez celebrates his Mexican-American identity and examines how those two sides conflict in a striking collection of poems.” —USA Today

What if you could ask God anything? What would you ask, and how would He answer? Chelsea Chambers is on her own. After a public split from her NFL superstar husband, Chelsea takes a bold step out of the limelight and behind the counter of the Higher Grounds Café, an old-fashioned coffee shop in dire need of reinvention. But when her courage, expert planning, and out-of-this-world cupcakes fail to pay the bills, this newly single mom finds herself desperate for help. Better yet, a miracle. Then a curious stranger lands on Chelsea’s doorstep, and with him, an even more curious string of events. Soon, customers are flocking to the Higher Grounds Café, and not just for the cupcakes and cappuccino. They’ve come for the internet connection to the divine. Now the café has become the go-to place for people in search of answers to life’s biggest questions. When a catastrophe strikes and her ex comes calling, Chelsea begins to wonder if the whole universe is conspiring against her quest to make it on her own. After a shocking discovery opens her eyes to the unseen world around her, Chelsea finds the courage to ask God a question of her own—and heaven answers in a most unexpected way. “Max Lucado’s remarkable gift of storytelling brings the pages to life in his novel Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café. This highly relatable story of working through heartache and standing firm on your faith is intertwined with a good dose of humor and overflowing with biblical truth. This message will stay with you long after you’ve read the last page.” —Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author of The Best Yes and It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way “Step inside the Higher Grounds Café, a place brimming with whop, a heaping helping of comfort food, and a direct line to heaven. Where faith lives, all things are possible, for a family, a community, and one woman who wasn’t sure she had the courage to believe again.” —Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours “Now, here is the in-depth breakdown on why YOU will love it: First of all, Max Lucado is the best. Of course, angels, miracles and neighborhood cafés are also at the top of the list. Most of us love stories and according to statistics, 54% of us actually love coffee. So, there! Read Miracle at the Higher Grounds Café immediately. It’s a story by Max Lucado about an angel and the miracle performed for some folks (who drink coffee) in a cool neighborhood café. Can a book even get any better than this? I don’t think so.” —Andy Andrews, New York Times bestselling author of The Noticer and The Traveler’s Gift Full-length inspirational novel USA TODAY bestseller Includes discussion questions for book clubs

A doctor's account of her own experience of death, heaven and return to life with a new realization of her purpose on earth. Dr Mary Neal, an orthopaedic surgeon, was on a kayaking holiday in Chile. Sceptical of near death experiences, she was to have her life transformed when her kayak became wedged in rocks at the bottom of a waterfall and was underwater for so long that her heart stopped.To Heaven And Back is Mary's faith-enriching story of her spiritual journey, her first-hand experience of heaven and its continuing life-enhancing effects.

No matter who you are, there is one simple question each of us must ultimately answer. Where do you stand with Jesus? It really is a very simple question with eternal final results that will at last determine where you spend eternity. That was the simple question I asked my dad one day nearly thirty-five years ago. This simple question was met with an incredible and angry response from my mother who thought that I had no right asking such a question and that it was none of my business. This was basically the same response that I got from my sister when she learned that I had the temerity to ask this question of my dad. This simple little question began a familial discord between my mother and me that resulted in what ended up as largely a dysfunctional family relationship for almost thirty years. In addition to this underlying cause of our family dysfunction, I did more than my share to advance the cause of dysfunction in our family. Over the course of years, our family relationships remained strained and distant, largely my fault, until that day when we all learned that our mom had cancer. From that point on, things were very different in our family. The steady treatment and advance of Mom's cancer seemed to take an oddly twisted and tangled route to a result that left all of us arguably stunned and even more so surprised. This is the story of that, twisted and tangled trip.

Argues that the various aspects of the "counterculture" of the 1960s had a significant impact on American religious institutions.

When a new hellbreed comes calling, playing nice isn't an option. Jill Kismet has no choice but to seek treacherous allies -- Perry, the devil she knows, and Melisande Belisa, the cunning Sorrows temptress whose true loyalties are unknown. Kismet knows Perry and Belisa are likely playing for the same thing -- her soul. It's just too bad, because she expects to beat them at their own game. Except their game is vengeance. Nobody plays vengeance like Kismet. But if the revenge she seeks damns her, her enemies might get her soul after all. . .