Spiritual Literature

Samantha Winters lives her life the way a good accountant should - measured, deliberate, and safe. After watching her father die in a tragic skiing accident, she decided never to allow risk into her life again. But she didn't count on falling for Nick Chastain, who embodies everything she doesn't want in her safely constructed world, leading to heartbreak. With the charming backdrop of small-town friends, beloved cousins, and a whole church congregation rooting for them, can they set aside the disastrous ending of their first try at love?

"Red beef and strong beer" was how C. S. Lewis described his education under one of his early tutors. It was, in other words, a substantial education that engaged deeply with the intellectual tradition and challenged him to grow. Gary Selby sees Lewis' expression as an indication of the kind of transformation that is both possible and necessary for the Christian faith, and he contends that spiritual formation comes about not by retreating from the physical world, but through deeper engagement with it.

When her husband is killed by a car bomb while their band is on tour in Charleston, Alanna doesn't know where to turn. Her father-in-law is threatening to take custody of the baby she carries, but the one thing she knows for sure is that she can't lose the last piece of Liam she has left. Their manager offers her a marriage of convenience to gain her US citizenship and allow her to escape her father-in-law's control. It seems like the perfect solution...but her doubts begin almost as soon as she arrives at Barry's family home, a decaying mansion surrounded by swamp.

With the death of her father, Jo-Beth, her brother, and their mother, Johanna, move in with relatives in town. There, Johanna makes a living sewing her exquisite quilts and Jo-Beth discovers a special friend. Kind, thoughtful, and deep, Wesley Rutherford draws Jo-Beth like a magnet... and their attachment to one another becomes strong - strong enough to endure separation while Wes studies in Philadelphia. Strong enough to make their future together seem certain... until the Civil War forces a decision.

When Macy Dillon was five years old, her father encouraged her to draw a picture in the guestbook of a Carolina beach house. The next year, Macy returned to discover a drawing by an unidentified little boy on the facing page. Over the next 11 years, the children continue to exchange drawings…until tragedy ends visits to the beach house altogether. During her final trip to Sunset, Macy asks her anonymous friend to draw her one last picture and tells him where to hide the guest book in hopes that one day she will return.

A heart-warming contemporary romance set in the Flint Hills of Kansas, where a former rodeo queen abandons her dreams in order to care for her deceased father's ranch and her two half-siblings, only to realize with the help of a young new pastor that God can turn even the most dire circumstances into seeds of hope.

Mattie Evans, a young veterinarian in rural Kansas, saves a horse injured in a terrible accident. But she also finds herself tending the wounded relationship between a prodigal son and his ailing father. Love, conflict, forgiveness, and renewal drive the first book of the Seasons of the Tallgrass series.

First published anonymously in 1418, Thomas à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ is a classic Christian devotional work that has been read through the ages by such notable figures as Sir Thomas More, John Wesley, and Pope John Paul I. A meditation on spiritual life, it offers instructions for renouncing worldly vanity and discovering eternal truths with the goal of living out the teachings of Jesus by taking inspiration from his life.

It’s 1916, and Idaho rancher Cleo Arlington knows everything about horses but nothing about men. So when charged with transforming English aristocrat Sherwood Statham from playboy into cowboy, she’s totally disconcerted. So is Statham, who’s never encountered a woman succeeding in a “man’s world.” Their bumpy trot into romance is frustrating, exhilarating, and ultimately heartwarming.

Three months into her pregnancy with her first child, Hilary Yancey received a phone call that changed everything. As she learned the diagnosis - cleft lip and palate, a missing right eye, possible breathing complications - Hilary began to pray in earnest. Even in the midst of these findings, she prayed that God would heal her son. God could do a miracle unlike anything she had seen. Only when Hilary held her baby, Jack, in her arms for the first time did she realize God had given her something drastically different than what she had demanded.

Marked by heaven. Living eternity on earth. Driven by her ruthless career ambition and type-A personality, Roxeanne Wermuth was unwittingly following the path of her abusive, perfectionist father. Yet, it was only after receiving a diagnosis of the most severe form of multiple sclerosis that she fell victim to deep depression and the overwhelming desire to take her own life. It was then that one glimpse of heaven changed everything.

Feeling like you’ve been left for dead in a “desert” place of your life? Take heart. God has not forgotten you. Author Todd Shuler’s message of hope is based on his reflections and meditations into the life of Abraham’s son, Isaac. The Well-Watered Life is about thriving in the deserts of your own life, being led out by the power of the Holy Spirit, and learning to be a source of refreshing encouragement to others.

Two short story classics from Louisa May Alcott combined in one volume: Abbot's Ghost: Maurice Traherne is wrongly accused of fraud and gambling and must play a careful hand if he is to win his love, Octavia, from the grasp of other, less honorable men and retain the trust of those who had faith in him. The Baron's Gloves: Two rather young women, Amy and Helen, traveling with an older uncle, are doing the "tour" of Europe, and are supposedly soaking up education but secretly yearning for adventures and romance.

Emily Fisher is eager to meet the new employee at her father’s shop in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania. But when Christopher Hostettler arrives, his cold demeanor freezes her attempts at building a friendship. Longing for a fresh start, Christopher travels from Ohio to Bird-in-Hand. Christopher’s heart is still wounded from memories of home, and making new friends is the last thing on his mind—he knows the pain that comes with losing those you love. When Emily is kind to him, he tries to remain distant, but he soon finds himself stealing glances at her throughout the day.

It was to be a very special summer, the summer of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, the 60th year of the English monarch's reign. It was the summer Faith Devlin had looked forward to with great anticipation - the pressures of her debutante year were over, Jeff Montrose was back in London, and her American cousins were coming for a family reunion at the beautiful country estate of Birchfields. It was the summer of unexpected encounters and romantic enterprises....

Penny Sayres' red hair, freckle-splashed skin, and fierce independence drew the attention of some of the region's most eligible bachelors. One by one, they've been disappointed - because romance and marriage are the last things on Penny's mind! Since her childhood, she has sensed an unknown destiny beckoning from the horizon. When Penny's brother, Brad, invites her to join his family on their wagon train to California, Penny's dream of adventure comes true.

Free-spirited journalist Independence McClaren follows her heart to a Colorado silver-town - and a test of her fierce commitment to the truth. Mindy's birth name is Independence McClaren - a fitting match for her tenacity and determination. Leaving behind a secure but colorless future in the east, the fiery young woman heads west to Coarse Gold, Colorado, and the opportunity to carve her mark in a man's world.

Because it defines human existence, love is one of art's favorite subjects. Timeless Love: Poems, Stories, and Letters celebrates the mysterious nature of love and passion by bringing together classic works by beloved writers through the ages. Including stories, poems, and letters from Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barret Browning, John Keats, Edith Wharton, and more, this collection explores how each love is singular - yet love itself is universal.

One rainy day, years ago, a little girl named Lucy discovered that the back of a wardrobe isn't always just the back of a wardrobe. Sometimes, it's a door into another world. In Lucy's case, that other world was called Narnia, and though she was among the first to enter it, she was by no means the last. Millions of children (young and old) have followed her there and met its strange but wonderful inhabitants - Mr. Tumnus, Reepicheep, and Puddleglum, among others.

Join Katharine and the MAMs, her friends from the Magnificent and Marvelous Book Club. When their interest in ancient cave paintings leads them on an unexpected adventure, the women make a leap of faith, leaving their day-to-day lives behind to travel to modern-day Turkey for an archaeological dig.