Do you love to read? Do you blog? We want your input. Will you read these books, blog your thoughts, and post a review on your favorite on-line retailer site?
Send us your name and contact information at Karwyn.Bursma@zondervan.com to receive a free advance reader copy of one of these books:
Daisy Chain by Mary DeMuth
Sticks and Stones by Ace Collins
A Gift of Grace by Amy Clipston
Midnight in Madrid by Noel Hynd
Technorati tags: Noel Hynd, bloggers, book reviews, Ace Collins, Mary DeMuth, Amy Clipston, Christian, Zondervan
Do you love to read? Do you blog? We want your input. Will you read these books, blog your thoughts, and post a review on your favorite on-line retailer site?
Send us your name and contact information at marcy.schorsch@zondervan.com to receive a free advance reader copy of one of these books:
When Love Blooms by Robin Lee Hatcher
Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg
Technorati tags: Robin Lee Hatcher, bloggers, book reviews, Jesus, When Love Blooms, Ann Spangler, Christian, Lois Tverberg, Zondervan
If we are honest, we have to admit that there are many things we don’t understand about God, especially in the face of terrible suffering and evil. Chris Wright offers reflections and encouragement from the Scriptures, so that those who are troubled by these tough questions can still sustain their faith.
The God I Don't Understand will be featured in weekly blog posts, chapter by chapter, throughout the spring on Zondervan Academic's Koinonia blog. The blog series began last week. Visit the Koinonia blog every Wednesday to see video clips from the author that introduce each chapter (see today's post). Or you can join the online discussion and see the same video clips on Facebook.
Technorati tags: Chris Wright, faith, questions, Christianity, evil, suffering, God, Zondervan
A new biography, titled Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader by Joe Hilley (Zondervan 2008), will explore themes from her career in politics, her life as a hockey mom, and her strongly held Christian faith, explaining how they influence her new style of leadership and align with our changing economy in the information age. The book is scheduled for release nationwide on October 10, 2008.... Read More
Shane Claiborne, Chris Haw, and the Psalters kicked off the Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals tour this past Monday night in Grand Rapids! The tour will run through July 26 - click here to see if the tour is coming to a city near you.
Grand Rapids Press ran an article about the tour kick-off at this link. A live blog posting about this tour stop is at this link.
Kay Warren, author of Dangerous Surrender: What Happens When You Say Yes to God, will be leading a free live Internet chat tomorrow, Friday, June 6th, from 1:00-2:00pm EST. Visit Kay's website for more details on how to participate at: www.kaywarren.com
Last night author Laura Jensen Walker gave her book club autographed copies of her upcoming release, Daring Chloe: A Getaway Girls Novel, which she dedicated to her book club! Nine women gathered for their regular book club meeting and to hear Laura speak about her new book. Here is a synposis of the book:
When Chloe Adams’ fiancé dumps her—the night before their wedding—two girlfriends from her book group decide a little adventure is in order for the three of them. After all, why let a perfectly good honeymoon cruise go to waste?
Adventure? Chloe Adams? No way! Chloe’s lived in one town her whole life. The closest she’s ever gotten to actual adventures is reading about them. But her girlfriends won’t take no for an answer.
One good adventure calls for another as Chloe’s friends try to coax her out of her post-dumping funk, and soon she finds herself living out the adventures in her book club’s latest selections. Hiking. Sailing. River rafting. Traveling to new places and eating exotic food. The play-it-safe Chloe begins to blossom into a new, daring Chloe. A Chloe who just might be ready to take on her biggest adventure of all …
Laura Jensen Walker has a knack for quirky heroines and real-life humor. In Chloe, she’s created another memorable character who will live on in readers’ hearts. Click here to read a sample chapter: 
Below is a photo of Monday night's Book Ends book club:
Laura Jensen Walker (pictured above in the middle) is an award-winning writer and popular national speaker. Her previous novels include Miss Invisible, Dreaming in Black & White, and Reconstructing Natalie, chosen as the first-ever Novel of the Year for Women of Faith® conferences. A former reporter with a degree in journalism, she is also the author of several non-fiction humor books. Laura lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband, Michael, and their piano-playing dog Gracie. Visit her website at www.laurajensenwalker.com.
"‘The Dude abides.’… I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners." — The Stranger, “The Big Lebowski”
Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen are the subject of a new book to be published by Zondervan and written by award-winning Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cathleen Falsani.
Scheduled for release in Spring 2009, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers will look at the filmmakers’ presentation of serious existential and theological questions using the dark, intelligent humor and epic storytelling that have been their trademarks in more than a dozen films during the past 25 years.
The Dude Abides will be a chronological examination of the Coen brothers’ oeuvre—every film they have directed together, as well as the films for which they have written original screenplays and those they have adapted from existing material. Falsani will investigate the theological, mythological, moral, ethical, religious and philosophical content and what their overarching message—their “Gospel”—might be.
Following the tradition of The Gospel According to the Simpsons, The Gospel According to Disney and The Gospel According to Oprah, The Dude Abides will turn a journalist’s eye on the Coen Brothers’ particular brand of popular culture to explore “the moral and existential questions and answers—God-stuff, really—put forth in scenarios and situations where some folks might say God isn’t supposed to show up,” Falsani says. “I see a large audience of avid fans who want to explore the transcendent depths of the Coens’ work, as well as those readers who are simply interested in the intersection between popular culture and spirituality.”
From their 1984 debut, “Blood Simple,” through their most recent work, “No Country for Old Men,” which recently was honored with 4 Oscars, each of the Coen Brothers’ films probes ethical and spiritual quandaries.
• “Blood Simple” is the story of a man with serious doubts, and what happens when he attempts to discover what the “truth” is.
• In “Barton Fink,” the title character, a successful New York playwright turned Hollywood screenwriter, mortgages his soul as he struggles with terminal writers block among the residents of, what may be, hell—fire, demons and all.
• “The Big Lebowski” chronicles the misadventures of the Dude—stoner, pacifist, philosopher —as he attempts to right some wrongs and vanquish the powers of nihilism and moral turpitude.
• “O Brother Where Art Thou” follows the odyssey (spiritual and otherwise) of three convicts, a skeptic searching for his way home and two seeking redemption from their sins.
• “No Country for Old Men” is an epic, prophetic journey that tackles one of theology’s most daunting conundrums, theodicy—if God is good then why doesn’t God intervene to stop unrelenting violence—and surmises that we don’t really know what God is thinking.
Cathleen Falsani is the Author of The God Factor and Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace. She is an award-winning religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. A graduate of Wheaton College, Falsani holds masters degrees in journalism and theology. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and fellow journalist, Maurice Possley.
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