Authors, A-Z Books

The Purpose Driven® Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven® Life, The)

Rick Warren

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1089 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The spiritual premise in The Purpose-Driven Life is that there are no accidents---God planned everything and everyone. Therefore, every human has a divine purpose, according to God's master plan. Like a twist on John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural address, this book could be summed up like this: "So my fellow Christians, ask not what God can do for your life plan, ask what your life can do for God's plan." Those who are looking for advice on finding one's calling through career choice, creative expression, or any form of self-discovery should go elsewhere. This is not about self-exploration; it is about purposeful devotion to a Christian God. The book is set up to be a 40-day immersion plan, recognizing that the Bible favors the number 40 as a "spiritually significant time," according to author Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, touted as one of the nation largest congregations. Warren's hope is that readers will "interact" with the 40 chapters, reading them one day at a time, with extensive underlining and writing in the margins. As an inspirational manifesto for creating a more worshipful, church-driven life, this book delivers. Every page is laden with references to scripture or dogma. But it does not do much to address the challenges of modern Christian living, with its competing material, professional, and financial distractions. Nonetheless, this is probably an excellent resource for devout Christians who crave a jumpstart back to worshipfulness. --Gail Hudson

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

N. T. Wright

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For years Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven.

Award-winning author N. T. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright, who is one of today's premier Bible scholars, asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection. He provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus and shows how this became the cornerstone for the Christian community's hope in the bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the age. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth," revealing what happens to the dead until then and what will happen with the "second coming" of Jesus. For many, including many Christians, all this will come as a great surprise.

Wright convincingly argues that what we believe about life after death directly affects what we believe about life before death. For if God intends to renew the whole creation—and if this has already begun in Jesus's resurrection—the church cannot stop at "saving souls" but must anticipate the eventual renewal by working for God's kingdom in the wider world, bringing healing and hope in the present life.

Lively and accessible, this book will surprise and excite all who are interested in the meaning of life, not only after death but before it.

The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Jack Canfield, Janet Switzer

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Personal Transformation

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 269 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

If there's anyone qualified to write a self-help book on success, it's Jack Canfield, who's worked his way from scraping by as a teacher to holding a Guinness world record for having seven books simultaneously on The New York Times® Best Sellers list.

As a coauthor of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series, he's sold more than 80 million books, and now lives "in a beautiful California estate" with his days of dining on spaghetti and tomato paste long behind him. "All you have to do is decide what it is you want, believe you deserve it, and practice the principles in this book," he says, and success is yours.

His advice is straightforward (examples: "reject rejection" and "surround yourself with successful people"), but rather derivative, with quotes from the likes of JFK, Colin Powell, Aldous Huxley, and fellow motivation author Napoleon Hill.Canfield's definition of success is primarily monetary, and he includes plenty of anecdotes depicting average folks who saved themselves from the brink of bankruptcy after following his principles. He could tone down the braggadocio; readers don't need to know that he's stayed in resorts in Hawaii, Italy, Australia, and Morocco. Despite those gripes, his cheerleader-caliber enthusiasm should benefit anyone looking to improve their lot in life. --Erica Jorgensen

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 Jack Canfield, creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, reveals secrets to success with 64 timeless principles in The Success Principles. Get a successful start right now and watch a video featuring Jack Canfield and his words of wisdom on how to transform your life, how to take responsibility, and why his new book is suited for everyone.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

John C. Maxwell

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thomas Nelson Amazon Marketplace: 73 new & used starting at $10.07

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great for new managers 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am a Corporate Trainer and Product Developer. This book is an essential new manager read. What a great congratulatory gift for someone receiving a promotion to their first management position. Great for an office book club.

How Leadership Works 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

In this revision of his 10 year-old best-seller about how leadership works, John C. Maxwell demonstrates that leadership learning never ends. The proof of this learning is in the deletions and additions to his irrefutable laws! Although I still find some overlap (i.e. the Law of Solid Ground, the Law of Respect, and the Law of Buy-in are all about a leader's character and the all important trust factor), these updated irrefutable laws provide plenty of insight into how leadership works, as well as offer a great deal of useful advice on how to make them work for you.

In this revised Maxwellian version of a leadership framework, servant leadership (the Law of Addition) with its relational aspects of heart (the Law of Connection), head (the Law of Intuition), and hands (the Law of the Picture) still serves as the leadership foundation. The external influence is addressed in the Law of Timing, but Maxwell's most powerful observation may be the Law of Explosive Growth, where he observes that leaders who concentrate on leading leaders are those most capable of growing their business.

I enjoyed the lessons from history that he uses to explain each law, and find that his personal examples add a touch of practicality to his sometimes too cleverly named laws. This revised edition is recommended for any student of leadership.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

Editorial Review:

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell combines insights learned from his 40-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict. Some highlights of the revised edition of this New York Times bestseller, which has sold more than a million copies, are:

• Every chapter has been revised
• 2 chapters - "The Law of Addition" and "The Law of the Picture" - are entirely new
• 17 new stories are included
• 6 chapters are 50% revised
• 5 chapters are 75% revised
• Application pieces follow every chapter
• Leadership evaluation is included

The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions

Huston Smith

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Total reviews: 105 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The World's Religions, by Huston Smith, has been a standard introduction to its eponymous subject since its first publication in 1958. Smith writes humbly, forswearing judgment on the validity of world religions. His introduction asks, "How does it all sound from above? Like bedlam, or do the strains blend in strange, ethereal harmony? ... We cannot know. All we can do is try to listen carefully and with full attention to each voice in turn as it addresses the divine. Such listening defines the purpose of this book." His criteria for inclusion and analysis of religions in this book are "relevance to the modern mind" and "universality," and his interest in each religion is more concerned with its principles than its context. Therefore, he avoids cataloging the horrors and crimes of which religions have been accused, and he attempts to show each "at their best." Yet The World's Religions is no pollyannaish romp: "It is about religion alive," Huston writes. "It calls the soul to the highest adventure it can undertake, a proposed journey across the jungles, peaks, and deserts of the human spirit. The call is to confront reality." And by translating the voices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Christianity, and Judaism, among others, Smith has amplified the divine call for generations of readers. --Michael Joseph Gross

Jack Canfield's Key to Living the Law of Attraction: A Simple Guide to Creating the Life of Your Dreams

Jack Canfield, D.D. Watkins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 58 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Long before co-creating the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Jack Canfield was already teaching the ancient principles of the Law of Attraction. Canfield has been consciously living in harmony with this universal law for more than thirty years, and his personal success is a testament to its power. Now, in Jack Canfield's Key to Living the Law of Attraction, he shares his knowledge and experience with you and offers you his proven tools and techniques for applying the Law of Attraction in your own life.

This book is a simple 'how to' guide for using the Law of Attraction to create the life you desire. Within these pages, Canfield clearly explains not only what you need to know, but what you need to do in order to attract what you want in your life. Jack Canfield's Key to Living the Law of Attraction addresses the important issues of clarity, purpose, and action. This thought-provoking guide will take you step by step through the processes of defining your dreams, goals, and desires. Along the way, you will gain a greater understanding of yourself—a sense of who you really are and why you are here. Your journey begins right here, right now. You can change your life, increase your awareness, and empower yourself to create an amazing future—one that is filled with love, joy, and abundance.

This book is your key.

St. Augustine Confessions (Oxford World's Classics)

Saint Augustine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood.
Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context.
The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.

The Road Less Traveled, 25th Anniversary Edition : A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth

M. Scott Peck

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 171 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Growth Oriented 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have accidently found this book and read it, This is an extraordinary book with great insight on the Life, conscience growth and Love. If you haven;t read this then you are missing lot of great insight which has been provided in the book. 5 star from my side

Great Book on Self-Reflection! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The Road Less Traveled is a classic that explores personal discipline, love, growth and religion. It is inward looking, insightful, sound and practical in many cases. There are some areas that are controversial, and this can detract from the material a little. But, each person must choose his or her own path...as the book points out.

Scott Peck does an excellent job of presenting this material on self-reflection, analysis and addressing personal growth in a positive manner. Although the book was released three decades ago, it remains useful today.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Editorial Review:

By melding love, science, and religion into a primer on personal growth, M. Scott Peck launched his highly successful writing and lecturing career with this book. Even to this day, Peck remains at the forefront of spiritual psychology as a result of The Road Less Traveled. In the era of I'm OK, You're OK, Peck was courageous enough to suggest that "life is difficult" and personal growth is a "complex, arduous and lifelong task." His willingness to expose his own life stories as well as to share the intimate stories of his anonymous therapy clients creates a compelling and heartfelt narrative.

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Lee Strobel

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Total reviews: 629 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Case for seriers is great. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

1 July 2008 - Great Book...a friend gave me this book years ago but after reading The Case for a Creator I read it and thought it was amazing. It was the abridged version.

if I could give this book less than one star, I would 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is presented in the guise of addressed serious questions of the Christian faith in an objective, thorough manner; as a lawyer would defend a case. Listen, if Lee Strobel was defending Christ in a court of law, Christ would be in trouble. No offense. This book may work well for the naive, but is doesn't answer any serious questions regarding the validity of Christianity. Also, notice how everyone he interviews is a "Dr." Something. That's to help him prop up his side of the argument. He's hoping that the reader will see the "Dr." and not question the evidence. It's downright insulting. If he had good evidence to answer the questions posed, he would need someone with a "Dr." in front of their name. He could just use the evidence.

Editorial Review:

The Case for Christ records Lee Strobel's attempt to "determine if there's credible evidence that Jesus of Nazareth really is the Son of God." The book consists primarily of interviews between Strobel (a former legal editor at the Chicago Tribune) and biblical scholars such as Bruce Metzger. Each interview is based on a simple question, concerning historical evidence (for example, "Can the Biographies of Jesus Be Trusted?"), scientific evidence, ("Does Archaeology Confirm or Contradict Jesus' Biographies?"), and "psychiatric evidence" ("Was Jesus Crazy When He Claimed to Be the Son of God?"). Together, these interviews compose a case brief defending Jesus' divinity, and urging readers to reach a verdict of their own.

Redeeming Love

Francine Rivers

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Total reviews: 541 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this splendid retelling of the biblical story of Hosea, bestselling author Francine Rivers pens a heartbreaking romance between a prostitute and the upright and kind farmer who marries her; the story also functions as a reminder of God's unconditional love for his people. Redeeming Love opens with the Gold Rush of 1850 and its rough-and-tumble atmosphere of greed and desire. Angel, who was sold into prostitution as a child, has learned to distrust all men, who see her only as a way to satisfy their lust. When the virtuous and spiritual-minded Michael Hosea is told by God to marry this "soiled dove," he obeys, despite his misgivings. As Angel learns to love him, she begins to hope again but is soon overwhelmed by fear and returns to her old life. Rivers shines in her ability to weave together spiritual themes and sexual tension in a well-told story, a talent that has propelled her into the spotlight as one of the most popular novelists in the genre of Christian fiction. This is one of her best. --Cindy Crosby