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EDITOR’S NOTE: This week, we asked master shopper Susan Stitt, the head of Georgia-based Morgan Street Media (and the marketing director for Front Edge Publishing) to help us all with our holiday lists. Got a tough one on your list? Consider some of these tips …
By SUSAN STITT
Morgan Street Media
Want to make your loved one happy this holiday season? All of the books I’m listing today are inspiring and informative. They’re also true—and many levels, you’ll discover. If you can match some of these tips to a friend or loved one, then you’ll wind up with a perfect choice.
And remember, with a book, you also can add a personal note inside the front cover. How many of us have books on the shelf that, when we open them again, we discover names and dates that warm our hearts.
FOR STORIES OF COURAGE AND HOPE
Struck by Hope—The True Story of Answering God’s Call and the Creation of Little Pink Houses of Hope by Jeanine Patten-Coble.
The day after a diagnosis of breast cancer, Jeanine Patten-Coble was struck with a calling that turned her world upside down. In this book, she weaves her tale of running away from that calling—to finding her purpose. Her vision led her to found Little Pink Houses of Hope and a way for cancer patients to find hope in weeklong family retreats. In this book, she invites us along on this journey toward becoming “ridiculously present.” She includes questions for personal reflection and group discussion.
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FOR DETROITERS— AND THOSE WHO LOVE OUR CITIES
Tiny Homes In a Big City by Reverend Faith Fowler.
This is the amazing story of how Cass Community Social Services, a Detroit-based nonprofit, is building a new neighborhood of tiny homes in a corner of the city where everyone else had vanished—not even their previous homes were left standing in these empty blocks. The new homes are being built to allow low-income individuals a way to eventually own their own homes. Cass’s unique rent to-own approach to building a neighborhood has drawn millions of people around the world to follow the rise of Faith Fowler’s community. In the book, she explains how the decision to build was made, compares this build with other organizations, explains the philosophy behind their plan, offers the logistics of building, and responds to online feedback.
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FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR CHURCHES
Can You Just Get Them Through Until Christmas? by Pastor Margie Briggs for Cass Community Publishing House.
When Margie Briggs was asked to provide pastoral leadership for two tiny rural congregations, the men and women who continued to love those churches had hit rock bottom. Regional church leaders were so desperate that they begged Margie, a lay person, to work with the broken-hearted people in order to get them through the holidays. Instead, Margie’s creativity and compassion inspired these men and women to reach out in new ways and sustainably grow their two churches into vibrant communities.
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For your college student
Or the teacher who needs some help
To My Professor—Student Voices for Great College Teaching by Michigan State University School of Journalism.
This helpful book is filled with honesty, savvy, very helpful advice by students about their instructors. They tend not to be the kind of remarks that professors usually hear, and some are harsh. Others are full of gratitude for teachers who inspire and motivate. The “To My Professor” statements are really just starting points that lead to advice from master teachers. Teaching is difficult and this book has some potential solutions. More than 50 chapters cover situations including expectations, communication, technology, race, gender and religion, mental and physical health.
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For the ELL or ESL learner in your life
American History Made Easy by Kathleen Gripman.
A book designed for the millions of English Language Learners (ELL), including English as a Second Language (ESL), and can be used either in classrooms or for self study. Written at an intermediate reading level, the chapters are illustrated with black-and-white drawings and charts designed to deepen reader recall. But, this book is not a list of facts to memorize. The engaging narrative style is fun to read – ideal for anyone who wants an overview of the essentials of American history.
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AT THE END OF LIFE …
Never Long Enough by Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff and Dr. Michelle Y. Sider.
A unique book about the end of life, Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff and artist Dr. Michelle Y. Sider brought together their many years of professional expertise with families. Krakoff drew on lessons learned in many years of counseling adults and children wrestling with death, grief and remembrance. Sider’s years working as an artist, arts educator and psychologist influenced her approach in creating evocative images that demonstrate how art can help to unlock emotions and heal the heart. Together, they crafted an interactive keepsake book for families and friends, complete with pages to add personal reflections thereby transforming the book into an individualized tribute to a loved one.
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For your female friends
Friendship & Faith, 2nd Edition from The Women’s Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in Metro Detroit (WISDOM).
This is a book about making friends, which may be the most important thing you can do to make the world a better place-and transform you own life in the process. Making a new friend often is tricky, as you’ll discover in these dozens of real-life stories by women from a wide variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds. But, crossing lines of religion, race and culture is worth the effort, often forming some of life’s deepest friendships, these women have found. In “Friendship and Faith”, you’ll discover how we really can change the world one friend at a time.
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