Does anyone else feel like December snuck up on them!? It's not even technically December yet, but the holiday season already seems to be in full swing. I for one am ready for a little of the calm that this season brings... even if it's near the end of the season. With Christmas coming, cooler temperatures have blown in too. I'm not exactly loving the cold, but I am dying to get a few hours in a comfy chair with a cup of hot tea and a good book. Isn't that just quintessentially Winter?There's not a lot of books that caught my eye for December, but January has a ton of new releases that are incredibly interesting. Here's what I've found that I'm interested in and think you may be too.

Coming in December 2018 + Ready for Preorder

December 1 – Beloved Chaos: Moving from Religion to Love in Red Light District by Jamie West Zumwalt

What do you do when your faith no longer makes sense, when everything you thought you believed falls apart?

After twenty years in ministry, Christianity suddenly was no longer working for Jamie Zumwalt. In the midst of this crisis, she opened Joe's Addiction, a coffee shop, to conduct a Grand Experiment:

Is it possible to live what Jesus taught--giving to those who ask, caring for the poor, forgiving and loving your enemies? And if possible, can it transform not only individuals, but an entire community?Experience a red light district plagued by poverty and violence, as Jamie weaves her own story of overcoming sexual abuse, shyness, and judgmental religion with the stories of those living on the margins. From giant, tattooed gang enforcer, Forklift, to little Mary, the sex worker, we learn the patience necessary to fight despair and restore hope to men and women experiencing homelessness and addiction. Jamie challenges ideas about God and people and invites us to leave religion to follow the Way of Love, creating a Community of Hope that becomes a little taste of heaven, here on earth.December 11 – Spiritual Practices in Community: Drawing Groups Into The Heart of God by Diana ShiflettDiana Shiflett has been leading groups of all descriptions in spiritual practices for many years, and she understands the difficulties involved: the potential for awkwardness and self-doubt, the nagging question of whether anyone's getting anything out of this at all. But more than that, she understands the value of spiritual practices: their deep roots in the history and worship of God's people, and their ability to calm our distracted minds and hearts so we are ready to hear the voice of Jesus. In this personal, hands-on guide, Shiflett walks us through a wide array of spiritual practices, from communal silence and Scripture meditation to active prayer and corporate discernment. She proves a reliable guide, offering step-by-step instructions, pointing out hazards and pitfalls, and sharing her own experiences with honesty and humor. With this book as a guide, these spiritual practices can become life-giving resources in your ministry setting for years to come.December 11 – Yes, I'm Hot in This by Huda Fahmy

Popular Instagram cartoonist and American-Muslim Huda Fahmy presents a hilarious, relatable, and painfully honest new collection of comics that break down barriers and show how universal our everyday problems, worries, and joys actually are.

At some point in our lives, we've all felt a little out of place. Huda Fahmy has found it's a little more difficult to fade into the crowd when wearing a hijab.

In Yes, I'm Hot in This, Huda navigates the sometimes-rocky waters of life from the unique perspective of an American-Muslim woman, breaking down misconceptions of her culture one comic at a time. From recounting the many questions she gets about her hijab every day (yes, she does have hair) and explaining how she runs in an abaya (just fine, thank you) to dealing with misconceptions about Muslims, Yes, I'm Hot in This tackles universal feelings from an point of view we don't hear from nearly enough.Every one of us have experienced love, misunderstanding, anger, and a deep desire for pizza. In Yes, I'm Hot in This, Huda's clever comics demonstrate humor's ability to bring us together, no matter how different we may appear on the surface.

Coming in January 2019 + Ready for Preorder

January 8 – From Basement to Sanctuary: Finding Healing and Transformation through Suffering by Holly Christine Hayes

From Basement to Sanctuary is a radical story of conversion and transformation that enlightens readers on how God's strength truly can be made perfect through our weakness. Author Holly Christine Hayes spent her teen and young adult life mired in alcoholism and drug addiction, in the grips of a downward spiral that led to a life of trauma, shame, and eventual homelessness. After an encounter with God in a public bathroom in 2001, her life was forever changed. God miraculously healed her and delivered her from her addiction. But it took years for her to find out who the God was that saved her. It wasn't until she came face to face with Jesus through an accidental encounter with the Bible that she learned He was the God who saved her in that bathroom all those years ago. Through the telling of her story, the author takes readers on a journey through the surrender of the recovery meetings that gather in church basements to the wholeness and healing she found in the sanctuary of the church. All the while, she shares lessons she learned in the basement about who God really is and the miraculous ways He wants to heal our hurts, habits, sins and setbacks.

January 8 – Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M. McManus

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone has declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself.January 15 – Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage: How Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity Can Transform Your Faith by Curt LandryRabbi Curt Landry, founding pastor of House of David Ministries, reveals how understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity leads to a more vibrant, secure, and powerful Christian walk.The church was created by Jesus, who was born Jewish yet primarily rejected by his family and his people. His early followers were both Jewish and gentile, and the church's early culture was rooted in Judaism and a Jewish understanding of God's relationship to his people. Over time, however, Christianity became increasingly more Roman than Jewish, and the church lost its identity.Rabbi Curt Landry's personal story is remarkably similar. Born out of wedlock to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, Landry was put up for adoption. For over thirty years, he had no understanding of his heritage, his roots, or who his parents were. But when he discovered the truth of his story, his life changed completely.The key to a life of power and purpose is understanding who you are. In this revelatory new book, Curt Landry helps Christians discover their roots in Judaism, empowering them to walk in the revelation of who they really are and who they are born to be. Reclaiming Our Forgotten Heritage reveals the mysteries of the church, letting Christians grasp the power that comes from connecting with their identity.January 22 – Irresistible Faith: Becoming the Kind of Christian the World Can't Resist by Scott SaulsWhat if Christians became the best advertisement for Jesus?Jesus said his followers would be a light to the world and a city on a hill--a warmly inviting, neighbor-loving, grace- and truth-filled destination for all. He envisioned his followers as life-giving neighbors, bosses, employees, and friends, the kind of people who return insults with kindness and persecution with prayers. Rooted in biblical convictions, they would extend love, empathy, and care to one another as well as to those who don't share their beliefs. Over time their movement would become irresistible to every nation, tribe, and tongue. Irresistible Faith is a blueprint for pursuing this vision in our current moment, of redeemed individuals and a renewed community working for a restored world. This is a way of being that gives a tired, cynical world good reason to pause and reconsider Christianity--and to start wishing it was true.January 22 – Taste and See: Discovering God among Butchers, Bakers, and Fresh Food Makers by Margaret FeinbergGod is a foodie who wants to transform your supper into sacrament.One of America's most beloved teachers and writers, Margaret Feinberg, goes on a remarkable journey to unearth God's perspective on food.She writes that since the opening of creation, God, the Master Chef, seeds the world with pomegranates and passionfruit, beans and greens and tangerines. When the Israelites wander in the desert for forty years, God, the Pastry Chef, delivers the sweet bread of heaven. After arriving in the Promised Land, God reveals himself as Barbecue Master, delighting in meat sacrifices. Like his Foodie Father, Jesus throws the disciples an unforgettable two-course farewell supper to be repeated until his return.This groundbreaking book provides a culinary exploration of Scripture. You'll descend 400 feet below ground into the frosty white caverns of a salt mine, fish on the Sea of Galilee, bake fresh matzo at Yale University, ferry to a remote island in Croatia to harvest olives, spend time with a Texas butcher known as "the meat apostle," and wander a California farm with one of the world's premier fig farmers.With each visit, Margaret asks, "How do you read these Scriptures, not as theologians, but in light of what you do every day?" Their answers will forever change the way you read the Bible - and approach every meal.Taste and See is a delicious read that includes dozens of recipes for those who, like Margaret, believe some of life's richest moments are spent savoring a meal with those you love.Perhaps God's foodie focus is meant to do more than satisfy our bellies. It's meant to heal our souls, as we learn to taste and see the goodness of God together. After all, food is God's love made edible.See you around the table!January 29 – The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers by Bridgett M. Davis

In 1958, the very same year that an unknown songwriter named Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a pretty young mother from Nashville, Tennessee borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket out of her tattered apartment on Delaware Street, in one of Detroit's worst sections. That woman was Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis' mother. Part bookie, part banker, mother, wife, granddaughter of slaves, Fannie became more than a numbers runner: she was a kind of Ulysses, guiding both her husbands, five children and a grandson through the decimation of a once-proud city using her wit, style, guts, and even gun. She ran her numbers business for 34 years, doing what it took to survive in a legitimate business that just happened to be illegal. She created a loving, joyful home, sent her children to the best schools, bought them the best clothes, mothered them to the highest standard, and when the tragedy of urban life struck, soldiered on with her stated belief: "Dying is easy. Living takes guts."

A daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" to provide a prosperous life for her family -- and how those sacrifices resonate over time. This original, timely, and deeply relatable portrait of one American family is essential reading.January 29 – A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri RawsonWhat is it like to learn that your ordinary, loving father is a serial killer? Kerri Rawson, the daughter of the notorious serial killer known as BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), tells the nightmarish story of that discovery and of her long journey of faith and healing.In 2005, Dennis Rader confessed without remorse to the murders of ten people, including two children—acts that destroyed seven families and wrecked countless lives in the process. As the town of Wichita, Kansas, celebrated the end of a thirty-one-year nightmare, another was just beginning for his daughter, Kerri Rawson.Suffering from unexplainable night terrors for much of her childhood and young adult years, Kerri was unaware of her father's crimes until the FBI knocked on her apartment door, plunging Kerri into a black hole of horror and disbelief. Her dad had been leading a double life. The same man who had been a loving father, devoted husband, church president, Boy Scout leader, and public servant had been using his family as a cover for his heinous crimes since before she was born.Telling her story with candor and courage, Kerri writes for all who carry unhealed wounds and who struggle to protect themselves and their families from the crippling effects of violence, betrayal, anger, and loss. A Serial Killer's Daughter is an intimate and honest exploration of life with one of America's most notorious serial killers. For anyone grappling with how to forgive the unforgivable, rebuild lives in the shadow of death, and hold on to sanity in the midst of madness, Kerri's story will shock, astound, and ultimately encourage.