Although most evangelical traditions bar women from ordained ministry, many women have carved out unofficial positions of power in their husbands' spiritual empires or their own ministries. The biggest stars write bestselling books, grab high ratings on Christian television, and even preach. Bowler offers a sympathetic and revealing portrait of megachurch women celebrities, showing how they must balance the demands of celebrity culture and conservative, male-dominated faiths. And black celebrity preachers' wives carry a special burden of respectability. A compelling account of women's search for spiritual authority in the age of celebrity. -- adapted from jacket

An "excellent true-crime study" of a female serial killer given the death penalty for poisoning at least three men between 1973 and 1989 (Publishers Weekly). Widowed Blanche Taylor Moore was about to lose her second spouse to symptoms that mysteriously mirrored those that killed her first husband-as well as her previous boyfriend. When an investigation reveals arsenic poisoning, the hideous truth about the wife and mother comes to light. Did the abuse Blanche suffered as a child at the hands of her alcoholic father turn her into a murderer she became? In this riveting true crime account, critically acclaimed journalist Jim Schutze explores the harrowing motivation and chilling details of the lives, loves, and victims of North Carolina's oldest living inmate on death row. "Involving . . . chronicle of the murderous career of a Bible Belt Borgia." -Kirkus Reviews

What keeps women from being their best? Joyce has been helping women better themselves by helping identify emotional barriers and physical, mental, and spiritual obstacles in their lives for years. Now she provides another answer-confidence. Our society has an insecurity epidemic, women in particular. Compensating by pretending to be secure-a common response-only leads to feelings of shame. Lack of self-confidence causes great difficulty in relationships of all kinds, and in marriage instances can even lead to divorce. In THE CONFIDENT WOMAN, Joyce explores the seven characteristics of a woman with confidence, which include a woman who knows she is loved, who refuses to live in fear, and who does not live by comparisons. Joyce explains that confidence stems from being positive in your actions and living honestly, but most importantly from having faith, in God and in ourselves.

"Pastor Weiss [tells] the truth about what private life can be like for women who seek to publicly serve the Church." --Lynne Silva-Breen, MDiv, MA, LMFT, former ELCA Pastor "Anyone who daily searches for a genuine faith relationship will find benefit from this work." --Bruce G. Trethaway, MDiv "What are you?" the curious man asked Pastor Marjorie Weiss when he saw her walk by him in the church corridor while she was wearing her clerical collar. That question is indeed the heartbeat of her story. Until the 1970s, "pastor" had been a male-only profession. "What am I?" she asks throughout her journey. "What am I as I stand before a congregation weekly to deliver a sermon that will inspire and guide listeners to better understand themselves and God?" And what is she when that faith, so necessary to do her job, suddenly seems to vanish? What is she when her emotional life crumbles and anger rules her landscape? Can she be a pastor without God in her life? Weiss's deeply vulnerable, often humorous, memoir speaks to universal issues experienced by the religious and nonreligious alike. Many of her experiences may seem familiar while others border on the truly toxic. Can the pastor recover her faith? Or is it God from whom she needs to recover?

If "Who am I?" is the question you're asking, Rachel Jankovic doesn't want you to "find yourself" or "follow your heart." Those lies are nothing to the confidence, freedom, and clarity of purpose that come with knowing what is actually essential about you. And the answer to that question is at once less and more than what you are hoping for. Christians love the idea that self-expression is the essence of a beautiful person, but that's a lie, too. With trademark humor and no nonsense practicality, Rachel Jankovic explains the fake story of the Self, starting with the inventions of a supremely ugly man named Sartre (rhymes with "blart"). And we--men and women, young and old--have bought his lie of the Best Self, with terrible results. Thankfully, that's not the end of our story, You Who: Why You Matter and How to Deal with It takes the identity question into the nitty gritty details of everyday life. Here's the first clue: Stop looking inside, and start planting flags of everyday faithfulness. In Christianity, the self is always a tool and never a destination.