- Six Stories of Brokenness and Hope

At only £1 this book is a fantastic giveaway! Inside are six abridged versions of classic Christian biography / testimony books. So we have: Taming The Tiger - Tony Anthony; Seriously Rich - Richard Pidgely; Once an Addict - Barry Woodford; A Night Out with the Boys - Haydn Davies; Conquering the Dragon - Kim Goh; and finally, The Power and the Glory - Arthur White. They are well abridged and highly shortened versions of the original books but are done in such a way that the story lines remain true in all of them. And the depths experienced and the redemption achieved shines out in all of them still. These are perfect tasters to share.

Review by Melanie Carroll (05/02/13)

Paperback
Price: £1.00
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: January 2013
ISBN: 978-1-860-24759-0

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Clydebuilt

- The Story of George Reith

by Marista Leishman

This is the story of George Reith, the tough and visionary Scot who was the general manager of the Clyde Navigation Trust at the end of the nineteenth century. He made the river Clyde and shipbuilding on the river the most renowned in the world. The author is his great grand-daughter. She is also the daughter of John Reith of BBC fame. George Reith came from a modest background, a wheelwright by trade and a committed Presbyterian. He was a fiercely moral man, austere in his life-style and driven by his vision of Glasgow as a great industrial city. He was respected rather than loved by all who knew him. His story as written by Leishman is unlike the usual biography. It is more like a novel with a series of fictionalised confrontations between Reith and the top scientists and industrialists of his time. These scenes, although invented, are based nevertheless on extensive research and give the story its unique perspective. It ends up much more informative and readable than bald statements of facts. In this way we receive a memorable and intimate portrait of a remarkable man.

Review by John Irvine (24/01/13)

Paperback
Price: £12.99
Publisher: Saint Andrew Press
Published: 30 October 2012
ISBN: 978-0-715-20938-7

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Kicking The Black Mamba

- Life, Alcohol and Death

by Robert Anthony Welch

Irish professor, poet and prolific author, Robert Welch, tells the painful story of his beloved and brilliant son, Egan's, descent into alcoholism, leading to periods in hospital and other institutions, and death by drowning in the river Bann in Northern Ireland in 2007, at the age of 28. The book conveys a lot about the problems in living with and caring for someone with alcohol addiction (and also incidentally a lot about Irish life and legends). It is "a search for meaning in the death of a greatly loved son". What makes the book memorable is the author's unmistakable grief and passionate love for his son, his desperate attempts to halt Egan's decline, and his utter honesty in voicing the fear that he has been complicit in some way in what happened to Egan. It is a love story that is painful to read but will reward the reader. After a year's writing, Welch admits he hasn't found the answer, but then, unexpectedly to me, his final chapter and closing "message" speak of "the hope of resurrection". This is not, "emphatically not", a "religious" book, states the author firmly, but I found in it countless references to the Gospel, and to the death and – especially – resurrection of Christ. What of the book's strange title? You have to wait until nearly the end (page 188) for an explanation. Egan himself made up the expression, when he heard about another alcoholic taking his first drink after a period of abstinence. A black mamba, of course, is a highly venomous snake, whose bite means almost certain death. Egan meant that, by returning to booze, this other person was "kicking the black mamba that will kill him".

Review by Barry Vendy (21/01/13)

Paperback
Price: £12.99
Publisher: DLT (Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd)
Published: 17 September 2012
ISBN: 978-0-232-52895-4

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Nowhere but Up

- The Story of Justin Bieber's Mom

by Pattie Mallette with A J Gregory

Pattie Mallette, the mother of Justin Bieber ("the number one name in pop music across the world", according to Google) tells her story, with great frankness, and I recommend it to you. It's a harrowing life story at first – sexually abused as a child, caught up in a lifestyle of partying, alcohol and drugs (though fortunately not addicted), and pregnant in her teens. John Brown, director of a community centre Pattie frequented and a Christian, was about the only person who kept on caring about her. He said to Pattie, "When you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up. Why don't you see what God wants to do with your life?" Pattie's life would indeed be changed by the impact of the reality of God. She had always been "intrigued" by the Bible texts on the wall of a neighbour's living room. But now she became a believer and a churchgoer, not that she pretends that all of life became easy overnight. She has a son, Justin, and describes how he became a celebrity and how she oversaw the beginnings of his career. But all the while, her own healing process continues, and she admits that she has not yet arrived at her "final destination of emotional wholeness", though she is further down the road than she could ever have imagined. She has had to learn to "admit my victimisation", but also to "refuse to be a victim". "I had a choice to let the pain define me or to heal from its wounds. I made the choice to heal, to move on without those wounds crippling my journey. I made the choice to live, to really live. It has not been easy, but it has been worth it." And she has come to terms with the need to forgive. So the book ends with the words, "To my abusers: I forgive you."

You can follow Pattie on Twitter (&Pattie Mallette).

Review by Barry Vendy (10/01/13)

Paperback
Price: £8.99
Publisher: Revell imprint of Baker Pub from Lion
Published: 18 September 2012
ISBN: 978-0-800-72212-8

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Hope and A Future

- A story of love, loss and living again

by Wes Richards

A short pacey story that treks the downward slope and then a jagged and joyful journey to life and purpose. It's quite an unbelievable story of life and death, love and loss, heaven and earth, pain and healing - one that will touch a personal cord in each of its readers, largely on account of the touchingly honest emotions captured and shared by Richards.

While the arc of the main narrative progresses brilliantly, the use of both an introduction and a prologue spoils the flow. Overall, it's beautifully written, intimate and deeply moving. A powerful story made alive by the life of God!

Review by Johnny Douglas (24/12/12)

Paperback
Price: £8.99
Publisher: Monarch imprint of Lion Hudson
Published: September 2012
ISBN: 978-0-857-21291-7

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Dorothee Soelle - Mystic and Rebel: The Biography

by Renate Wind

This biography translated from the German is of a remarkable woman and is a book well worth reading. Dorothee Soelle (1929 -2003) combined within one person an amazing number of outstanding qualities. An intellectual with deep religious convictions, as well as a theologian she was a writer, lecturer, poet, mystic and political activist. She was also a wife and the mother of four children. Courageous, honest and outspoken, Dorothee was sometimes at odds with established wisdom, both political and religious, and for this she was often maligned. She was, however, never deterred. Among the causes she espoused were The Peace and Justice Movement, the Option for the Poor, and Women’s Liberation. In her view religion was not a purely personal matter, but rather something that should work for others, in particular the underprivileged, the persecuted and the victimized. She based this on her deep love of the crucified Christ. She was also, by her own admission, driven by a sense of guilt at the atrocities perpetrated by her fellow Germans before and during the 1939-45 war, although she herself was but a child at its outbreak.

Review by Alexandra Irvine (27/11/12)

Hardback
Publisher: Fortress Press from Alban Books
Published: April 2012
ISBN: 978-0-800-69808-9

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J R R Tolkien - The Making Of A Legend by Colin Duriez
ISBN: 978-0-745-95514-8 Price: £8.99	Published: October 2012
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Micah - The true story of a young man glorifying God in life and death by Dani Ramsey
ISBN: 978-1-622-30342-7 Price: £12.50	Published: 05 June 2012
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I am Loved - The poignant story of an unloved girl who found extraordinary love by Claudette Schlitter
ISBN: 978-1-860-24860-3 Price: £8.99	Published: September 2012
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Running for My Life - One Lost Boy's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong
ISBN: 978-1-400-27503-8 Price: £10.99	Published: 17 July 2012
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The Accidental Pilgrim - New Journeys on Ancient Pathways by Maggi Dawn
ISBN: 978-0-340-98006-4 Price: £8.99	Published: August 2012
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The Weight Of Mercy - A Novice Pastor On The City Streets by Deb Richardson-Moore
ISBN: 978-0-857-21229-0 Price: £8.99	Published: August 2012
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Me, My Mother, My Life - A Journey Through Pain and Healing by Ayomide Adeniola
ISBN: 978-1-468-58555-1 Price: £9.99	Published: 20 July 2012
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The Messy Quest For Meaning by Stephen Martin
ISBN: 978-1-933-49532-3 Price: £9.99	Published: May 2012
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Runaway, Red Beret, And Reverend - The Remarkable Story Of Mike McDade by John Alexander
ISBN: 978-1-780-78017-7 Price: £7.99	Published: October 2012
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The Emancipation of Robert Sadler - The Powerful True Story of a Twentieth-Century Plantation Slave by Robert Sadler with Marie Chapian
ISBN: 978-0-764-20940-6 Price: £7.99	Published: 01 January 2012
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Heading Home - My Search for Purpose in a Temporary World by Naomi Reed
ISBN: 978-1-860-24853-5 Price: £8.99	Published: June 2012
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The Monster Within - Hells Angel To God’s Messenger by Brian Greenaway
ISBN: 978-1-853-45740-1 Price: £8.99	Published: June 2012
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Dallas and the Spitfire - An Old Car, An Ex-con, and an Unlikely Friendship by Ted Kluck & Dallas Jahncke
ISBN: 978-0-764-20961-1 Price: £9.99	Published: 18 May 2012
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Hurting Hope - What Parents Feel When Their Children Suffer by Charles & Joanne Hewlett
ISBN: 978-1-903-68974-5 Price: £7.99	Published: May 2011
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Cassock in the Kitchen by Mary B Morrison
ISBN: 978-1-471-60582-6 Price: £5.00(plus P&P)	Published: 2012
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Watershed - Turning Points on the Spiritual Road by Michael Ford
ISBN: 978-0-232-52872-5 Price: £9.99	Published: 06 June 2012
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Bread of Heaven - The Life and Work of William Williams, Pantycelyn by Eifion Evans
ISBN: 978-1-850-49240-5 Price: £19.99	Published: January 2011
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Restoring Our Hearts by Paul Collett
ISBN: 978-1-907-50916-2 Price: £8.99	Published: Spring 2012
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The Vow by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter
ISBN: 978-1-433-67579-9 Price: £9.99	Published: 03 March 2012
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The Fight - The Battle Over a Man’s Past and a Boy’s Future by Luke Wordley
ISBN: 978-0-956-92450-6 Price: £8.99	Published: 2011
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Eric Liddell: Pure Gold - The Olympic Champion Who Inspired Chariots of Fire by David McCasland
ISBN: 978-0-745-95571-1 Price: £9.99	Published: 23 March 2012
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Down's Syndrome : The Biography by Chris Nancollas
ISBN: 978-0-232-52880-0 Price: £12.99	Published: March 2012
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I Am In Here - The Journey of a Child with Autism Who cannot Speak but Finds her Voice by Elizabeth M. Bonker & Virginia G. Breen
ISBN: 978-0-800-72071-1 Price: £9.99	Published: 01 December 2011
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