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Selma J. Geis explores the idea of forgiveness as an act of self-love in Human, Flawed, Forgiven: Letting Go of Blame and Resentment Toward Your Parents (For Your Own Sake), a sensitively written and compassionate book aimed at forgiving abusive or neglectful parents. While forgiveness can be a tall order, Geis makes a methodical case for the value of letting go of childhood pain, using personal anecdotes, psychological research, and insightful advice to show how other people’s behavior doesn’t have to define your life. Powerfully written and expertly organized, this book has the potential to be truly transformative.

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An illustrated book of self-help for all ages, What To Do When The Problem Is You? A Picture Book for Leaders by Janak Alford is a refreshingly humorous and straightforward look at some of our worst habits. Unfolding like a children’s book with a picture and short rhyming stanza, the book takes on issues such as toxicity and pessimism, offering prescriptions for bad behavior like inclusion and empathy. While the book is certainly breezy, and people will recognize themselves in these couplets, the text might not quite dive deep enough into the serious issues at hand. That said, the book […]

An eye-opening work of self-help with an often overlooked focus, The Boundaries Book That Will Transform Your Life: A Guide on Dealing with Emotional Abuse is an illuminating examination into how boundary setting with family, friends, and significant others can be the most important step towards self-worth. While much self-help literature focuses on personal faults, this book illustrates how other people’s toxicity can be the biggest roadblock to self-acceptance and mental health. The Mindful Matters Institute and author Angela Hoyos draw from scientific research on psychology as well as personal experiences to create an instructive guide that is both methodical […]

A charming children’s book with a vivid scrapbook-style layout, The Things I Love by Christina M. Carroll and illustrated by Jenny Slife is a simple but expressive book about everyday joys. Listing things that he loved from the ages of 10 to 1, we find the young boy’s favorite activities – from camping in the wild at 10 to chewing his toe at 1. Most importantly, many of these activities involve the outside world and don’t involve video games or smartphones, encouraging kids to look beyond their screens – a message that is increasingly vital, and subtly presented here. An […]

Priscilla by Jenny Knipfer is an earnest and heartwarming historical novel set in early 20^th century rural America, part of the Apron Strings series of historical Christian fiction, with each installment written by a different author. Priscilla joins a cooking class as she dreams of being the perfect woman and wife like her mother used to be. However, she comes to realize that love, marriage, and family mean much more than a well-cooked meal. Written in an easy-going, intimate language, this is a romantic and tender story that will immerse the reader in the atmosphere of the time, even […]

Set in 19th-century Australia, Phelan’s Gold by Casey Walsh is a thrilling novella following the adventures of Eamon Phelan, a charming criminal, and his gang of cattle thieves. With a new gold rush on the horizon, Eamon and his companions start their journey north, where he hopes to find business amid the chaos, but on one of their stops Eamon finds love instead, and none of his later exploits can get Shelagh Cleary out of his mind. Witty, funny, and playful, Walsh’s novella is both romantic and full of historical detail, for a unique work of character-driven historical fiction that […]