Imagine raising six spirited kids on a grass farm-today. Newspaper columnist Dorcas Smucker and her brood live out their days in full view in this collection of musings-picking blueberries while watching for bears, hoping for angels while driving off the freeway, moving into the "thousand-story house," and enduring lectures from teenage children about the virtue of respect. Three books in one, this collection includes Smucker's Ordinary Days: Family Life in a Farmhouse, Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting: More Family Life in a Farmhouse, and Downstairs the Queen Is Knitting. Often slightly off-stride and with disarming humility, Dorcas finds endless materials for stories and life lessons in everyday happenings. As she says, "I, like my mother, feed my children mashed potatoes and stories. I repeat the ones I heard from Mom and turn our family escapades into tales to be repeated while washing dishes or snapping buckets of green beans on the front porch. A story is much more than just a story, of course. It is entertainment, identity, interpretation, and lessons. This is who we are, this is why we do what we do, this is important, that is not, and don't ever whack your brother's finger with a hatchet like your dad did to Uncle Philip." This delightful trilogy includes some of Smucker's best writing. She covers topics and dilemmas everyone can relate to while also inviting readers to explore her Mennonite family's more personal experiences. Her voice is humorous, encouraging, and at times, doubting, but she never takes herself too seriously. As you read, her stories will entertain you and ultimately soothe your soul.

Ibn Babawayh - also known as al-Shaykh al-Saduq - was a prominent Twelver Shi'i scholar of hadith. Writing within the first century after the vanishing of the twelfth imam, al-Saduq represents a pivotal moment in Twelver hadith literature, as this Shi'i community adjusted to a world without a visible imam and guide, a world wherein the imams could only be accessed through the text of their remembered words and deeds. George Warner's study of al-Saduq's work examines the formation of Shi'i hadith literature in light of these unique dynamics, as well as giving a portrait of an important but little-studied early Twelver thinker. Though almost all of al-Saduq's writings are collections of hadith, Warner's approach pays careful attention to how these texts are selected and presented to explore what they can reveal about their compiler, offering insight into al-Saduq's ideas and suggesting new possibilities for the wider study of hadith.

In this autobiography by Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade," you have the opportunity to read the behind-the-scenes report of one of this century's most surprising and public confessions of faith.

Hard Truth: Growing out of Adversity, tells the remarkable story of the author's journey towards healing and resilience. Having lost her father during her childhood the author retraces her earliest memories of growing up in the idyllic setting of Barbados. While happy and securely attached to her parents she experienced poverty. Her mother's decision to emigrate to England to find a new life for her family increased the sense of loss she suffered during her most formative years. Ince-Greenaway's explanation of her experiences of arriving in England during the Windrush years demonstrates the enduring impact of discrimination and racism she faced in the community where she lived and during her education. The Christian values she was taught by her mother during her childhood became the backdrop for her resilience as she faced the death of her husband who was the second Black police officer in the Metropolitan Police. She tells of the trauma that resulted from his death. As she grieved the loss of her husband, she had the bitter-sweet experience of accepting the gift of his son one week after his death. As the author transitioned to becoming a single parent, she fought against the odds to hold onto life in the middle of a frightening, devastating and life-threatening experience. Told through Christian lenses, the author describes the moments that drastically changed and shaped her life as well as the values that sustained her through a bitter experience. Hard Truth is a dynamic and compelling story that will inspire readers. It is a story that is personalised, educational and inspirational no matter where people are on their journey. It is empowering and a relatable story of triumph over adversity, progress over brokenness and success over misfortune. Hard Truth intensifies the importance of self-refection and personal empowerment. It is written for audiences everywhere and for people of all ages.