Listen, Love, Repeat

Listen, Love, Repeat
Author: Karen Ehman
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2016-11-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310339685

Our culture is self-obsessed – in our schedules, relationships, and especially online. (Can you say selfie?) But in this near-narcissism, people are less content than in decades past. Why? Because we forgot the joy that comes from putting others first. Doing so requires us to live alert, listening for “heart drops,” hints from those in our lives who need a helping hand or a generous dose of encouragement. Living alert lifts our own spirits, showing us that blessing others blesses us even more. Listen, Love, Repeat offers biblical teaching and suggests doable actions that are simple, heart-tugging, sentimental, even sneaky and hilarious. This message: • Presents scriptural examples of those who lived alert, including Jesus, who noticed those who least expected to be seen. • Explains the role of good works for followers of Christ. They aren’t our ticket to heaven but they are our marching orders on earth. • Gives creative ideas for showing love to friends and family, and suggests practical ways to reach out to the lonely, the marginalized, the outcast, and the odd duck. Additionally, it helps you comfort the grieving, showing what you can do when you don’t know what to say. • Provides inspiration for blessing the “necessary people” in your life, those often-overlooked souls who help you get life done every day, and teaches you how to hug a porcupine by genuinely loving the hard-to-love. As we scatter love, we create a safe space where we can openly share the gospel. We get to see lives changed right before our eyes. Most importantly, Listen, Love, Repeat will enable you to live a life that is full of kind deeds, not to selfishly shout, “Hey! Look at me!” but to humbly implore, “Will you look at Him?”

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading

Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading
Author: Maureen Corrigan
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2007-12-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0307431355

In this delightful memoir, the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air reflects on her life as a professional reader. Maureen Corrigan takes us from her unpretentious girlhood in working-class Queens, to her bemused years in an Ivy League Ph.D. program, from the whirl of falling in love and marrying (a fellow bookworm, of course), to the ordeal of adopting a baby overseas, always with a book at her side. Along the way, she reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life—from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan’s love for a good story shines.

Bake the Seasons

Bake the Seasons
Author: Marcella DiLonardo
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2019-04-02
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0735235201

Rediscover the simple pleasures of baking with a collection of comforting sweet and savoury recipes that celebrates seasonal flavours. Inspired by the abundance of the farms, orchards, and gardens of her childhood, Marcella DiLonardo has always loved baking throughout the year with the wide range of fruits and vegetables that accompany the changing seasons. With a few quality pantry essentials, Marcella focuses on simplicity in Bake the Seasons, sharing over 100 sweet and savoury recipes. These homey favourites are often modern twists on familiar classics and will quickly become tried and true dishes you return to again and again. Whether it's an indulgent Smoked Gorgonzola and Winter Pear Pizza to prepare for friends, a Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread to bring to a summer picnic, or beautiful holiday cakes, these comfort foods will impress your nearest and dearest. Not only can these delicious indulgences be enjoyed throughout the year at special occasions, Marcella serves up options for any time of day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, not to mention buttery treats, like Lemon Lavender Shortbread, to accompany a cup of afternoon tea. Showcasing Marcella's beautiful photography, Bake the Seasons is filled with mouthwatering treats and pastries, and takes us through the vibrant produce and enticing flavours of the spring, summer, fall and winter. You'll be delighted with classics like Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, as well as Marcella's personal spin on traditional baking, including Zucchini Cheddar Bread and Salted Honey Challah, and inspiring combinations, like Garlic Scape Brie Biscuits and a Lemon Thyme Tart. So whether you need a simple, comforting dinner idea or a lazy weekend breakfast for two, this collection of delicious, rustic recipes will suit your every day and every season.

Suffer Strong

Suffer Strong
Author: Katherine Wolf
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 031034459X

Is it possible to embrace suffering as a privilege, rather than a punishment? Beloved authors Katherine and Jay Wolf offer readers the bold invitation to trust a known God with an unknown future, as well as practical insights into surviving anything by redefining how we think about everything. After miraculously surviving a near-fatal brainstem stroke at age 26, as told in their memoir, Hope Heals, life for Katherine and Jay Wolf changed forever - and so did the way they viewed God, the world, and themselves in it. There was no going back to normal after such a tragedy. Yet Katherine and Jay learned that suffering is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new story. In Suffer Strong, they invite us into this new story as they share universal lessons and helpful practices that will help us to: Recognize we are being equipped for an uncommon assignment, not cursed by our story. Transform our unmet expectations into brave anticipations. Disrupt the myth that joy can only be found in a pain-free life. Rewrite the narrative of hard circumstances by turning our definitions of suffering into declarations of strength. And, ultimately, thrive even in the lives we never imagined living.

Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.)

Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.)
Author: Delia Ephron
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1471131874

Delia Ephron brings her trademark wit and effervescent prose to a series of unforgettable, moving and provocative essays. The emotional lynchpin is the author's stirring, eloquent response to the death of Nora Ephron, her older sister and frequent writing companion. In 'Sister', she deftly captures the love, rivalry, respect and intimacy that made up her relationship with her sister in a way that is at once deeply personal and comfortingly universal. Other essays in the collection run the gamut from a hysterical piece about love and the movies - how romantic comedies completely destroyed her twenties - to the joy of girlfriends and best friendship, the magical madness and miracle of dogs, keen-eyed observations about urban survival, and a serious and affecting memoir of life with her mother - growing up the child of alcoholics. Ephron's sparkling wit and humanity is present on every emotionally resonant page.

Unnatural Companions

Unnatural Companions
Author: Peter Christie
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 161091970X

"Highly compelling...page-turning read" — TNC's Cool Green Science We love our pets. Dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and other species have become an essential part of more families than ever before—in North America today, pets outnumber people. Pet owners are drawn to their animal companions through an innate desire to connect with other species. But there is a dark side to our domestic connection with animal life: the pet industry is contributing to a global conservation crisis for wildlife—often without the knowledge of pet owners. In Unnatural Companions, journalist Peter Christie issues a call to action for pet owners. If we hope to reverse the alarming trend of wildlife decline, pet owners must acknowledge the pets-versus-conservation dilemma and concede that our well-fed and sheltered cats too often prey on small backyard wildlife and seemingly harmless reptiles released into the wild might be the next destructive invasive species. We want our pets to eat nutritionally healthy food, but how does the designer food we feed them impact the environment? Christie's book is a cautionary tale to responsible pet owners about why we must change the ways we love and care for our pets. It concludes with the positive message that the small changes we make at home can foster better practices within the pet industry that will ultimately benefit our pets’ wild brethren.