Are you still trying to figure out what went wrong with your life? Was it a job loss that started the downward spiral you feel helpless to escape? Was it divorce? Was it abuse? Perhaps it was the death of a loved one, someone without whom your world no longer makes sense? Life-changing losses slash across our souls and leave gaping wounds, wounds whose scars imprint our once-perfect world as boldly as a jet's bright contrail cuts across a perfectly blue sky. Broken, lost, and scarred, how do we begin again? Patti Roberts-Thompson and Carole Lynn King consider this question through the lens of the extraordinary personal experiences of Patti's memoir, The Language of Scars, grounding life lessons in solid biblical truths. The Language of Scars, a language of lived wisdom, emerges in our conversations when suffering, doing its perfect work, brings us to humility. Humility brings us to redemption, and redemption brings us to the river of Grace, where healing washes us and others as it flows over and through our lives. In ancient Japan, an art form known as Kintsugi sprung from a legendary story of the appeasement of an angry Shogun. The Shogun's favorite teacup was broken to pieces by a careless servant. To save the servant's life, the artisans of the court used liquid gold to glue the pieces back together, in hopes the cup would be even better than before. After gluing it back together with gold, the artisans burnished the cup to a fine glow, and discovered gleaming gold designs that could never be repeated or copied. The cup had become a one-of-a-kind piece of art. The Shogun was delighted, and a new art form was born. It is the same with us and the Language of Scars. Kintsugi creates art from what is broken in us. God's golden glue gleams along our fault lines, creating an intricate design unique to every restored life. When we bring our broken pieces to the Creator and Redeemer of our souls, our broken places become an intersection with grace, a place where His golden love and healing put us back together again, even better than before. "I am one of the Lord's many pieces of Kintsugi," Patti says. "Are you? Let Christ have your broken places, and he will make them gleam with His light. Kintsugi of the soul belongs to all who seek it. Are you ready? This is what redemption looks like. It is Christ who heals, Christ who makes our scars beautiful and increases our value to others through them. Let Him create art from your broken places; Let Him teach you the Language of Scars.

Near-death experiences? Past-life regression? Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish? With a blend of candor, personal questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life. From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts—so often approached with reluctance—is in fact true to Jewish tradition. “The increasing interest and faith in survival of the soul may grow into a cultural wave that is as potentially transformative for society as the civil rights movement and feminism. A renewed faith in ‘the soul’s journeys’ will call for a reassessment of our priorities, and will enable traditional religions to renew and transform their adherents.” —from the Introduction

"The Soul With A Scar" is a collection of passionately written poems detailing a young woman's life in an Indian-American household. Manpreet Kaur Tiger speaks to the reader as someone willing to follow their heart despite many adversities brought on through tradition and sexual inequality. Through six engaging chapters, she welcomes the reader in openness through her colorful discussion of fear, anger, hate, love, loss, grief, and joy. Enter a deep, triumphant trip into a soulful realm through Manpreet Kaur Tiger's poetry and discourse in "The Soul With A Scar."

Near-death experiences? Past-life regression? Reincarnation? Are these sorts of things Jewish? With a blend of candor, personal questioning, and sharp-eyed scholarship, Rabbi Elie Kaplan Spitz relates his own observations and the firsthand accounts shared with him by others, experiences that helped propel his journey from skeptic to believer that there is life after life. From near-death experiences to reincarnation, past-life memory to the work of mediums, Rabbi Spitz explores what we are really able to know about the afterlife, and draws on Jewish texts to share that belief in these concepts—so often approached with reluctance—is in fact true to Jewish tradition. “The increasing interest and faith in survival of the soul may grow into a cultural wave that is as potentially transformative for society as the civil rights movement and feminism. A renewed faith in ‘the soul’s journeys’ will call for a reassessment of our priorities, and will enable traditional religions to renew and transform their adherents.” —from the Introduction

Included are the author's struggles to live with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC), his growing faith, and his calling as a volunteer hospice worker in northwest Kansas. Told with wisdom, courage, warmth, and humor.

"Part treatise, part memoir, part call to action, Tell Me How It Ends inspires not through a stiff stance of authority, but with the curiosity and humility Luiselli has long since established." —Annalia Luna, Brazos Bookstore "Valeria Luiselli's extended essay on her volunteer work translating for child immigrants confronts with compassion and honesty the problem of the North American refugee crisis. It's a rare thing: a book everyone should read." —Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books "Tell Me How It Ends evokes empathy as it educates. It is a vital contribution to the body of post-Trump work being published in early 2017." —Katharine Solheim, Unabridged Books "While this essay is brilliant for exactly what it depicts, it helps open larger questions, which we're ever more on the precipice of now, of where all of this will go, how all of this might end. Is this a story, or is this beyond a story? Valeria Luiselli is one of those brave and eloquent enough to help us see." —Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company "Appealing to the language of the United States' fraught immigration policy, Luiselli exposes the cracks in this foundation. Herself an immigrant, she highlights the human cost of its brokenness, as well as the hope that it (rather than walls) might be rebuilt." —Brad Johnson, Diesel Bookstore "The bureaucratic labyrinth of immigration, the dangers of searching for a better life, all of this and more is contained in this brief and profound work. Tell Me How It Ends is not just relevant, it's essential." —Mark Haber, Brazos Bookstore "Humane yet often horrifying, Tell Me How It Ends offers a compelling, intimate look at a continuing crisis—and its ongoing cost in an age of increasing urgency." —Jeremy Garber, Powell's Books