From Queen Latifa to Count Basie, Madonna to Monk, Hole in Our Soul: The Loss of Beauty and Meaning in American Popular Music traces popular music back to its roots in jazz, blues, country, and gospel through the rise in rock 'n' roll and the emergence of heavy metal, punk, and rap. Yet despite the vigor and balance of these musical origins, Martha Bayles argues, something has gone seriously wrong, both with the sound of popular music and the sensibility it expresses. Bayles defends the tough, affirmative spirit of Afro-American music against the strain of artistic modernism she calls 'perverse.' She describes how perverse modernism was grafted onto popular music in the late 1960s, and argues that the result has been a cult of brutality and obscenity that is profoundly anti-musical. Unlike other recent critics of popular music, Bayles does not blame the problem on commerce. She argues that culture shapes the market and not the other way around. Finding censorship of popular music "both a practical and a constitutional impossibility," Bayles insists that "an informed shift in public tastes may be our only hope of reversing the current malignant mood."

There's a Hole in Your Soul That Only God Can Fill

The hole in our holiness is that we don't care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don't understand it. And we all have our reasons too: Maybe the pursuit of holiness seems legalistic. Maybe it feels like one more thing to worry about in your already overwhelming life. Maybe the emphasis on effort in the Christian life appears unspiritual. Or maybe you've been trying really hard to be holy and it's just not working! Whatever the case, the problem is clear: too few Christians look like Christ and too many don't seem all that concerned about it. This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously, ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God's power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation.

"God-Shaped Hole will change you as a reader, writer and human. It is rare books like this one that remind me why I fell in love with the written word."—Colleen Hoover When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone... It's a dark prediction, but Beatrice Jordan never really believed in true love anyway. So, no harm done. She's accepted her lot in life: living in Los Angeles as an artist, not letting herself get too attached to anyone. It's not perfect, but nothing is. Until fate intervenes. It's a simple personal ad: "I am seeking a friend for the end of the world..." Eleven little words that change Beatrice's life irrevocably. Because they lead her to Jacob Grace, an unpredictable writer looking for something he can't name. Both of their worlds shift that day and what follows is a love story unlike any other; brimming with creativity and passion, as two lost souls find themselves in each other. From hole-in-the-wall record stores to late night phone calls, together, Beatrice and Jacob transcend the loneliness of their lives. But dark realities and secrets soon rise to the surface, as does Beatrice's fear of an inescapable fate. Despite it all, this is a story of real love: the kind that breaks you and remakes you, the kind that changes you forever. The kind of love worth having, even if it's short lived, even if you know you might lose it. God Shaped Hole is a brand new kind of love story, introducing dreamers to a quintessentially raw romance and inspires everyone to live and love as vividly as possible—the perfect book club or beach read for fans of The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves, In Five Years by Rebecca Serle, and More Than Words by Jill Santopolo. Praise for God-Shaped Hole: "This generation's Love Story."—Kirkus "If Holden Caulfield were a twenty-seven-year-old woman living in LA, this is the book he'd write, or read. It's very fast and very funny, and at its core it's that rarest of things—a truly convincing love story."—Dave Eggers "With wit and humor, the author brings these characters and their quirky, artsy friends alive. Bottom Line: You'll dig it"—People

A CBA Bestseller -- Two thousand years ago, twelve people changed the world. Stearns believes it can happen again. It's 1998 and Richard Stearns' heart is breaking as he sits in a mud hut and listens to the story Rakai, Uganda. His journey to this place took more than a long flight from the United States to Africa. It took answering God's call on his life, a call that hurtled him out of the presidential corner office at Lenox -- America's finest tableware company -- to this humble corner of Uganda. This is a story of how a corporate CEO faced his own struggle to obey God whatever the cost, and his passionate call for Christians to change the world by actively living out their faith.Richard Stearns has served as President of World Vision U.S. since 1998, having formerly been the CEO of Parker Bros. Games and Lenox, Inc. He and his wife, Renee, have five children of their own and millions more around the world.

Noah Andrews hates to lie, but that's exactly what his life is as a closet gay senior in North Carolina. One big lie. After months of fretting and hiding behind his quotes, Noah finally comes out to the world, and realizes he had nothing to fear after all. The same night he gets a message from an anonymous boy with a crush on him.

Your depression, anxiety, & unfulfillment are the result of a life disconnected from your soul--your own true self, which has been waiting for decades deep inside to be rediscovered. In this book you'll reconnect to your true voice, free yourself from the fears that dog you & find the courage to experience true ALIVENESS, lasting joy & inner peace