May 2010

Spring Arbor HITS

HITS (High Interest Title Selections) is a hand-selected list of titles that we predict will be of great interest to your customers.

Nonfiction
Need help realizing when to say yes, and how to say no to take control of your work life? In Boundaries at Work, Dr. Henry Cloud shows how to construct and enforce better boundaries against the technological devices, office distractions, and day-to-day job demands that have taken over the workplace and are invading personal lives.

Created by Family Life, one of America’s leading marriage and family ministries, the dynamic program Preparing for Marriage is designed to help Christian couples lay the foundation for a strong, lasting, and biblical marriage. It includes eight sessions of fun, romantic study that will help couples identify areas for growth.

Losing a child is one of the most difficult things parents can experience. Angie Smith interweaves the powerful story of a child’s death with the biblical story of Lazarus in I Will Carry You to help those walking through the difficult seasons of life to mourn and still have hope.

Partly autobiographical, partly historical, The Rage Against God, written by Peter Hitchens, brother of prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens, assails several of the favorite arguments of the anti-God battalions and makes the case against fashionable atheism. In a similar vein, authors Phillip E. Johnson and John Mark Reynolds argue for the reasonableness of Christian claims to take a place at the table of public debate, and go on to evaluate the strengths of arguments for atheism or naturalism in Against All Gods: What’s Right and Wrong about the New Atheism.

From John Townsend, the bestselling author of Boundaries, comes Now What Do I Do?, a book that will help readers tap into the power of seven key principles to solve everything from crises that explode without warning to chronic issues that have lingered for years.

Bill Hybels’ Who You Are When No One’s Looking has pointed the way to godly character for more than 20 years. Now his essential book is completely revised and updated, featuring a new Introduction, a new concluding chapter, and a discussion guide for groups.

An indispensable guide for people looking for the ideal job. Laurie Beth Jones explores the 12 dreams God has for each individual in Jesus, Career Counselor, a guide showing readers how to get, find, and keep the work they love.

John Stott examines eight aspects of Christian discipleship which are too often neglected and yet deserve to be taken seriously--non-conformity, Christ-likeness, maturity, creation-care, simplicity, balance, dependence, and death--in The Radical Disciple.

Golf pro Wally Armstrong and bestselling author Ken Blanchard walk readers through time-tested steps for improving their golf game and their life, with an inspiring story about priorities, self-confidence, and playing a good game both on and off the course in The Mulligan: A Parable of Second Chances.

Similarly, pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren presents a six-session group study that shows how God has planned for people to fulfill his purposes in community and with others in their church family, small groups, and in the world with the Better Together Study Guide: What on Earth Are We Here For?


Fiction
In The King, the fourth book in the Reluctant Demon Diaries series by Linda Rios Brook, the mysterious Wonk Eman has disappeared. Fearing the remaining scrolls may be lost forever, Samantha Yale is determined to find him. Her search leads her to a dark underworld of disembodied spirits where she finds Wonk and convinces him that he must overcome his fear and allow her to examine the remaining scrolls.

When Luke Anderson falls in love with Dove Morris, he is aware of her Native American heritage. What he is not prepared for is the prejudice suddenly exhibited by his parents against Dove. Will his parents see that love knows no boundaries of race or culture when it is rooted in God’s love for His people? These questions and others are explored in Morning for Dove, the second book in the Winds Across the Prairie series by Martha Rogers.

An Unwilling Warrior begins a new series, Seasons of Redemption by Andrea Kuhn Boeshaar. When Valerie commits her own life to Christ she finds herself drawn to Ben, the Christian houseguest in her home. But her father, against her wishes, is prepared to sell her into a loveless marriage with someone else. Will Valerie be forced to abandon her newfound love? Or will she and Ben, against the backdrop of the Civil War, become in their own way, unwilling warriors?

Battling depression, denial, and an irrational fear of darkness, Rob travels to the small town of Mayfield, Maryland, to check out a house he has inherited from his great aunt Wilda, a woman he had never met. He comes face to face with the town’s secret, creatures called Darklings that inhabit the night and instill paralyzing fear in the village’s citizens in Mike Dellosso’s Darlington Woods.

In the second thriller in Conlan Brown’s Firstborn series, The Overseer, Hannah Rice attempts to recover three teenage girls who have been abducted by a human trafficking ring while Devin Bathurst tries to thwart the racially motivated assassination of an African-American politician. A mysterious and unstable individual warns that Devin and Hannah must not pursue their mutual goals because it is a trap set by the Thresher.

Shelley Shepard Gray’s second Seasons of Sugarcreek book, Spring’s Renewel, brings Tim Graber to Sugarcreek to help his aunt and uncle with spring planting. At first, Tim doesn't fit in with his many cousins and their crowded lifestyle. But when he meets Clara Slabaugh, the local teacher, he understands why the Lord brought him to Sugarcreek.

In When the Heavens Fall, the second title in Gilbert Morris’s Windslow Breed novels, Brandon Winslow becomes a spy in service to Princess Elizabeth, opposed to Bloody Mary. Will it cost him his life, and the life of his beloved Adara?


Children & Teens
The perennial favorites, the Berenstain Bears®, are at it again. In The Berenstain Bears and a Job Well Done, Brother, Sister, and Honey learn the importance of sticking to a job and getting it well and truly done during spring cleaning time. And, through the story of David and Goliath, Brother and Sister Bear learn that they can stand up to bullies and be as brave as David, because God is with them, too, in The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage.

Karen Kingsbury’s charming text is complemented by Dan Andreasen’s darling illustrations in Let’s Have a Daddy Day, a playful and heartwarming picture book that celebrates the cherished and unique times that fathers and their children spend together.

In a new fantasy from renowned theologian Alister E. McGrath, the land of Aedyn has been overtaken by mysterious lords who trust only in their own reason. Two children called from today’s world have the power to lead the revolution, but will they find the courage to face their own destiny? Young adult readers will be enthralled by Chosen Ones, Book 1 of the Aedyn Chronicles.