Book Birthdays: October 2022 ‘birthdays’ include great gifts from the conflicts of 007 to the compassion of Caregiving

PUBLISHERS and AUTHORS CELEBRATE “BOOK BIRTHDAYS,” the anniversaries of our books’ debuts. Among our October book birthdays are several that continue to be popular with readers—and this is a great opportunity for us to remind everyone of these still very timely volumes:

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

‘A James Bond Bible Study’

“This really amounts to a James Bond Bible study—taking these contemporary issues and trying to relate them to how the Bible says we should live. When we announced a new small-group discussion of this book, we had people sign up who have never come to a small group before.”

We heard that kind of comment from many readers after we published Benjamin Pratt’s book, in 2008, exploring seven universal moral dilemmas in Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadly Sins and 007’s Moral Compass.

This “Bible study”—in which Pratt explains the influence of the New Testament book of James on Fleming’s series of 007 novels—has been connecting with readers for 14 years.

Just like Bond himself! Worldwide fascination with 007 continues to grow. This October 2022 is the 60th anniversary of the first blockbuster Bond movie, Dr. No. To mark this milestone, Amazon announced that it finally had secured the rights to stream all 25 Bond films free for Prime subscribers. Already this month, a special Sound of 007 concert was streamed from Royal Albert Hall in London (and continues to play on Amazon), then a documentary film of the same name began streaming on Amazon. Other major media companies are jumping on board as well. Disney’s Dancing with the Stars broadcast a special two-hour-long episode featuring a dozen tributes to the movie series—an episode that now is streaming for all Disney subscribers. And—headlines are popping up weekly about the search for the “next Bond” to follow Daniel Craig.

There’s not a more timely book to choose for your own autumn reading—or a holiday gift for a friend!

‘Changing Our Mind’

Every bit as timely is Dr. David Gushee’s worldwide best-seller, Changing Our Mind.

Since its first edition was published in October of 2014, Changing Our Mind has helped thousands of families and congregations carefully and compassionately rethink traditional religious teachings about full LGBTQ inclusion.

Arguably America’s leading Christian ethicist, Gushee has written many helpful books for churches, discussion groups, and individuals. He is the author of the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture and drafted the Evangelical Climate Initiative. His Kingdom Ethics is on pastors’ bookshelves nationwide. Now, in what he describes as the most important book of his career as a Christian teacher, Gushee gives us this encouraging discussion on how he changed his mind.

Author Brian McLaren calls Changing Our Mind “deep, thoughtful and brilliant . . . [and] refreshingly clear and understandable.” It is an eminently useful handbook for any individual or organization that wants to better contextualize traditional church teachings, which have been and must continue to change.

Do you find yourself, your family or your community caught up in this issue in 2022? This is the perfect choice to read along with friends and family.

If you already own Changing Our Mind, then the follow-up book you’ll want to read is Dr. Gushee’s new Introducing Christian Ethics, which includes links to both an audio and a video version of that new book.

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Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

‘A Guide for Caregivers’

Benjamin Pratt served for years as a pastor and a pastoral counselor—so he has his eye, ear and heart close to the urgent needs of individuals and their families.

Pratt followed up his Bond book with a book we published in October 2011 that has helped thousands of exhausted caregivers to find strategies for more resilient living.

In one out of three American households, someone is a caregiver: women and men who give of body, mind and soul to care for the well being of others. These millions need help, more than financial and medical assistance. They need daily, practical help in reviving their spirits and avoiding burnout. Who are these caregivers? They are folks who have lived this tough life and felt the agonies and the boredom, yet they have extended compassion with a gentle word or a tender touch. As caregivers, they know anger, frustration, joy, laughter, purpose, mortality and immortality.

This book is drawn from the wisdom of many caregivers and we have taken their advice: these are short, easy-to-read sections packed with wisdom and practical help! This book is designed to let readers jump in almost anywhere and explore at their own pace. Considering the millions of people worldwide who are caregivers, this book also is great for small-group study.

Have you already picked up this book? Well, then, you’ll definitely want to buy the follow-up volume in which Benjamin Pratt contributed with more than a dozen other experts to Now What?: A Guide to the Gifts and Challenges of Aging.

 

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