Life throws some punches - sometimes in the face, sometimes in the gut - and in my case, it threw a hefty punch at my kidney. If you follow me on Instagram (@ashleykarlen) you already know that a little over a week ago I underwent kidney stone removal surgery. I've spent the last week or so working on walking, trying to get comfortable, doing some reading and catching up on my TV shows (I'm finally caught up on NCIS: Los Angeles!). For surgery, some things had to give - Rick and I had to put some dreams on hold. I said "see ya later" to my job for a bit as I traded in my office for a hospital room. I also had to give myself some grace on not getting blog posts out as quickly as I wanted to. That last one - the giving myself grace part - has been difficult. The best part is that in the waiting and allowing myself to accept some grace from me is that I found some new books while putting the final touches on this list that I hadn't already discovered. Let's see some books!If you're looking for a book that you can already get your hands on (because waiting for books is really exciting but really hard too!), feel free to check out the last edition for December + January here or the entire series here.

Coming in February 2019 + Ready for Preorder

February 5 – Misfit Table: Let Your Hunger to Where You Belong by Tiffini Kilgore *Already Released!*Too often the world speaks words of harm, and too often we believe them--and so we live stories God never intended for us. Yet God longs to rewrite and redeem your story.Tiffini Kilgore, founder of the lifestyle and design boutique House of Belonging, grew up in a broken home before marrying at the tender age of sixteen. Years later, divorced and with three small children, she remarried. The seasons that followed brought two more children, another broken marriage, chronic disease, major surgeries, and cycles of abuse--leaving Tiffini feeling alone and unloved.Hungry for healing and a safe space, Tiffini began seeking Jesus through journaling and soon found bread crumbs of grace leading her down a new path. There, she found a rich table set for misfits just like her--a place of nourishment and restoration. Where she was fed lies of worthlessness, God fed her truth that she was his treasured daughter. Where she was told she was a helpless victim, God offered her the cup of his strength. Where she once held an empty future, God gave her hope and a fresh start. In cultivating an ongoing dialogue with her Abba Father, God transformed Tiffini's pain into passion, and ultimately, fierce belonging.Tiffini writes as a modern-day mystic, with lyrical force and deep tending of the soul, in this book for anyone who has ever felt out of place or at odds in the world. Each chapter features compelling narrative as well as a poignant response from "Papa" God as Tiffini calls him, and the result is a stirring invitation to come home to where you belong. Come and sit, take and eat, and join the battle cry to take God at his word.February 5 – Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder by Reshma Saujani *Already Released!*Imagine if you lived without the fear of not being good enough. If you didn't care how your life looked on Instagram, or worry about what total strangers thought of you. Imagine if you could let go of the guilt, and stop beating yourself up for tiny mistakes. What if, in every decision you faced, you took the bolder path?Too many of us feel crushed under the weight of our own expectations. We run ourselves ragged trying to please everyone, all the time. We lose sleep ruminating about whether we may have offended someone, pass up opportunities that take us out of our comfort zones, and avoid rejection at all costs.There's a reason we act this way, Reshma says. As girls, we were taught to play it safe. Well-meaning parents and teachers praised us for being quiet and polite, urged us to be careful so we didn't get hurt, and steered us to activities at which we could shine.The problem is that perfect girls grow up to be women who are afraid to fail. It's time to stop letting our fears drown out our dreams and narrow our world, along with our chance at happiness.By choosing bravery over perfection, we can find the power to claim our voice, to leave behind what makes us unhappy, and go for the things we genuinely, passionately want. Perfection may set us on a path that feels safe, but bravery leads us to the one we're authentically meant to follow.In Brave, Not Perfect, Reshma shares powerful insights and practices to help us override our perfect girl training and make bravery a lifelong habit. By being brave, not perfect, we can all become the authors of our biggest, boldest, and most joyful life.February 12 – Watch us Rise by Renée Watson + Ellen HaganJasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard.These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.February 12 – No Is A Beautiful Word: Hope and Help for the Overcommitted and (Occassionally) Exhausted by Kevin G. HarneyIf a person has extra time, nothing to do, and finds themself looking for ways to fill their empty days...this book is definitely not for them.No Is a Beautiful Word is designed and crafted for people whose plate is full, whose margin is thin, and whose life feels overloaded. They are looking for help, relief, and wisdom to navigate the countless options that life offers on a daily basis.This book is needed by people who:

Go to bed with a "To Do" list that never seems to get totally done.
Kindly say, "Yes" and secretly regret it five minutes later.
Feel pain and live with guilt when they have to say, "No."
Were taught that "No" is a dirty word.
Believe that saying "No" is a sign of weakness.
Feel trapped by unwise past commitments.
Want to say "Yes" to what matters most in life but are too exhausted.
Know that their life is out of balance and are seeking to fix it!

It will be valuable for:

Leaders who have a tough time making the hard decisions because they fear hurting someone's feelings.
Executives who feel over extended and pressed to the edges of their capacity.
Parents who feel overworked and under appreciated.
Students who are trying to balance the intensity of school, work, and their relational world.
Retired people who find themselves saying, with subtle humor but aching regret, "I am more busy now than I have ever been!"
Single people who go to bed at night exhausted because the day left no margin and offered no oasis of peace.
Married people who love their life but secretly dream about time to play, space to relax, and taking a nap.

No Is a Beautiful Word is designed to be read briskly, chewed on thoroughly, and acted on practically. The chapters are brief by intention. They range from one paragraph (that's right, some chapters are only a few sentences long!) to four pages.The goal of this book is give people clear concepts, paint a picture of what it looks like to live out the idea, and then move on to the next thought. The vision is to help people learn to say "No" to the things that don't matter (or don't matter as much) so they can say "Yes" to the things that bring life, hope, peace, and lasting meaning.February 19 – Daughter of Moloka'i by Alan BrennertAlan Brennert’s beloved novel Moloka'i, currently has over 600,000 copies in print. This companion tale tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama―quarantined for most of her life at the isolated leprosy settlement of Kalaupapa―was forced to give up at birth.The book follows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls in Honolulu, to her adoption by a Japanese couple who raise her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Relocation Camp during World War II―and then, after the war, to the life-altering day when she receives a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth’s birth mother, Rachel.Daughter of Moloka'i expands upon Ruth and Rachel’s 22-year relationship, only hinted at in Moloka'i. It’s a richly emotional tale of two women―different in some ways, similar in others―who never expected to meet, much less come to love, one another. And for Ruth it is a story of discovery, the unfolding of a past she knew nothing about. Told in vivid, evocative prose that conjures up the beauty and history of both Hawaiian and Japanese cultures, it’s the powerful and poignant tale that readers of Moloka'i have been awaiting for fifteen years.

Coming in March 2019 + Ready for Preorder

March 1 – A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Dr. Craig A EvansThis handbook serves as an introduction to the Jewish roots of the Christian Faith. It includes Old Testament background, Second Temple Judaism, the life of Jesus, the New Testament, the early Jewish followers of Jesus, the historical interaction between Judaism and Christianity, and the contemporary period.It is no longer a novelty to say that Jesus was a Jew. In fact, the term “Jewish roots” has become something of a buzzword in books, articles, and especially on the internet. But what does the Jewishness of Jesus actually mean, and why is it important?This collection of articles aims to address those questions and serve as a comprehensive yet concise primer on the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. A Handbook on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith consists of thirteen chapters, most of which are divided into four or five articles. It is in the “handbook” format, meaning that each article is brief but informative. The thirteen chapters are grouped into four major sections: (1) The Soil, (2) The Roots, (3) The Trunk, and (4) The Branches.March 5 – The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe by Richard RohrIn his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr hasnever written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our understandings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.March 12 – Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith in Others by Barbara Brown TaylorThe renowned and beloved New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark recounts her moving discoveries of finding the sacred in unexpected places while teaching the world’s religions to undergraduates in rural Georgia, revealing how God delights in confounding our expectations.Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students’ eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques.Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is.Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions—even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God—a change that ultimately enriches her faith in other human beings and in God.March 12 – Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram: A Handbook for Harmony and Transformation by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Doug Calhoun, Clare Loughrige + Scott LoughrigeThe Enneagram opens a remarkable window into the truth about us, enabling us to see how image, wounds, lies, triggers, and default responses shape us every bit as much as our faith. But simply diagnosing our number doesn't do justice to who we are. Nor does it necessarily change us or our relationships. Transformation happens as we grow in awareness and learn how to engage and reflect God's image. And relational repair then results as we apply Enneagram insights to the rhythms and grooves of our ordinary daily lives. For those who have learned about the Enneagram and wonder "What's next?"―this handbook is the answer. Filled with exercises to engage, challenge, encourage, and sustain, Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram will help us grow in greater awareness and lead us to spiritual and relational transformation. Including new insight on the Enneagram and the Harmony Triads, and offering helpful "Soul Resources" in the appendix, this handbook can be used by individuals or groups.March 26 – Delivered: Experiencing God's Power in Your Pain by Beth MooreGod is in the deliverance business. He longs for you to be free, to know the love and presence that are better than life—and the power of His Word that defies all darkness. In Delivered, Beth Moore shares her own journey out of the pit and the way the poetic expressions of Psalm 40 rewarded her with a new song for her soul—given by her Savior and offered to you here in this soul-stirring book. You also can be free from the worst life has to offer and learn to take Christ’s mighty arm when he reaches into the depths, and says in a way you can finally hear, Need a hand?