Saving Graces

“Compelling. . . breathtaking. . . unique.” —Washington Post Book World Meet the Saving Graces, four very different friends who get together once a week to kick back and take shelter from the trials and triumphs of their lives. Emma, the brazen skeptic with a soft heart, is hopelessly in love with a married man. Rudy, the fighter, is desperately trying to hold on to a deeply troubled marriage. Lee, “the normal one,” longs for a baby—and overwhelming desire that threatens to destroy her idyllic marriage. Isabel, divorced and free, is falling for her neighbor, a man whom she is sure is gay. For the past ten years their unexpected friendship has helped them cope with husbands, lovers, careers, children and everything in between. Though they’ve always been there for each other, when tragedy strikes their love, loyalty, and courage is put to the ultimate test. As this mesmerizing story eloquently captures, men, jobs and crises come and go, but nothing lasts like true friendship.

She charmed America with her smart, likable, down-to-earth personality as she campaigned for her husband, then vice-presidential candidate John Edwards. She inspired millions as she valiantly fought advanced breast cancer after being diagnosed only days before the 2004 election. She touched hundreds of similarly grieving families when her own son, Wade, died tragically at age sixteen in 1996. Now she shares her experiences in Saving Graces, an incandescent memoir of Edwards’ trials, tragedies, and triumphs, and of how various communities celebrated her joys and lent her steady strength and quiet hope in darker times. Edwards writes about growing up in a military family, where she learned how to make friends easily in dozens of new schools and neighborhoods around the world and came to appreciate the unstinting help and comfort naval families shared. Edwards’ reminiscences of her years as a mother focus on the support she and other parents offered one another, from everyday favors to the ultimate test of her own community’s strength—their compassionate response to the death of the Edwards’ teenage son, Wade, in 1996. Her descriptions of her husband’s campaigns for Senate, president, and vice president offer a fascinating perspective on the groups, great and small, that sustain our democracy. Her fight with breast cancer, which stirred an outpouring of support from women across the country, has once again affirmed Edwards’ belief in the power of community to make our lives better and richer.

Presents a collection of photographs of statues depicting female figures in mourning found in nineteenth-century European cemeteries

An ambitious reporter seeks a window into an obsessed killer’s mind—and is forced to take a hard look in the mirror, in this dark psychological thriller. It starts when a Cornwall fisherman finds a body in the ocean. The blood of the victim has washed away, but the angry message etched deep into the victim’s back is crystal clear: Grace—Number 1. It’s the kind of story that could make local reporter Jennifer Mack’s career—if she can keep her hypercompetitive colleague, Hayley, from undermining her at every turn. When the next body turns up far away in London, another carved message makes the link unmistakable—a serial killer is on the loose. Then, Jennifer receives a package from the killer. As she begins to communicate directly and publicly with a murderer-at-large, it appears she’s been chosen to write the headline story. But as lines between right and wrong start to blur, Jennifer is forced to come face-to-face with her own inner darkness . . .

Nearly everybody struggles against the same, predictable urges that have plagued human beings since the Garden of Eden. We aspire to rule rather than serve, desire things more than God, resent the successes of others, and run away from hard things. As a result, we suffer unfulfilled lives, lack contentment, and can never seem to get a handle on how to improve our lot. In this powerful book on personal spiritual change, Steve DeNeff unlocks the seven secrets to a life filled with purpose, contentment, and a strong sense of well-being. Keying on the seven most common spiritual problems that we all face--the seven deadly sins--DeNeff points the way toward life transformation by embracing the virtue-filled life of the Spirit. Readers will experience practical life changes as they learn how to cooperate with God--changing what they do as he changes who they are. Includes guide for personal or group study.

Meditations based on passages from the Bible as written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The following study on Ti1lich's theology is based on a doctoral dissertation, presented to the Ludwig-Maximilian University at Munich in December, 1967. Tillich's theology, however, is not a simple structure to analyze, since it is so systematically interrelated. Certainly every major area of his theo logical system involves all other major areas, and even the minor areas have complex ramifications to the total system itself. The following pages, there fore, can only be construed as one among many viewpoints of his system. Tillich's theological structure might be compared to a painting or some other work of art: one must view it now from this direction, now from that, in order to appreciate the total effect. Certain points should, however, be mentioned here. First of all, a key notion in this system is "essentialization. " This concept rounds off and com pletes Ti1lich's entire work. Unfortunately, Ti1lich himself did not write extensively on this topic, nor did he actually correlate it to the beginning and middle of his system, although it expresses the final telos of his entire theo logical work. I have drawn out of the Systematic Theology as much as possi ble on the subject of "essentialization," and have tried to analyze it in light of other key-concepts in his system.