From the publisher: "While opinions about Christianity are dropping, interest in spirituality is rising. Why the disconnect? Why are so many asking, “What’s so good about the Good News?”

Yancey was a favorite when I was younger. From the publisher: "The Jesus I Never Knew uncovers a Jesus who is brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and ultimately satisfying."

Philip Yancey says, "I have met many people who have gone through a process of mining truth from their religious past: Roman Catholics who flinch whenever they see a nun or priest, former Seventh Day Adventists who cannot drink a cup of coffee without a stab of guilt, Mennonites who worry whether wedding rings give evidence of worldliness." Soul Survivor reads like thirteen mini-biographies of remarkable individuals, from journalist G. K. Chesterton to novelists Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, to Martin Luther King, Jr., Annie Dillard, Shusaku Endo, and Dr. Paul Brand. Yancey says. "These are the people who ushered me into the Kingdom. In many ways they are why I remain a Christian today, and I want to introduce them to other spiritual seekers."

From the publisher: "The traces of God can be found in the most unexpected places--an Atlanta slum, a pod of whales off the coast of Alaska, the prisons of Peru and Chile, the plays of Shakespeare, a health club in Chicago--yet many Christians have not only missed seeing God, they've overlooked opportunities to make him visible to those most in need of hope. In this enlightening book author Philip Yancey serves as an insightful tour guide for those willing to look beyond the obvious, pointing out glimpses of the eternal where few might think to look. Whether finding God among the newspaper headlines, within the church, or on the job, Yancey delves deeply into the commonplace and surfaces with rich spiritual insight. Finding God in Unexpected Places takes readers from Ground Zero to the Horn of Africa, and each stop along the way reveals touches of his truth and grace that prompt readers to search deeper within their own lives for glimpses of transcendence."

From the publisher: "Philip Yancey has a gift for articulating the knotty issues of faith. Yancey poses three questions that Christians wonder but seldom ask aloud: Is God unfair? Is he silent? Is he hidden? This insightful and deeply personal book points to the odd disparity between our concept of God and the realities of life. Why, if he cares for us, do bad things happen? What can we expect from him after all? He takes us beyond the things that make for disillusionment to a deeper faith, a certitude of God's love, and a thirst to reach not just for what God gives, but for who he is."

From the publisher: "Discover grace as you've never known it before: the most powerful force in the universe and our only hope for love and forgiveness. In <em>What's So Amazing About Grace?</em> award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? True grace is shocking, scandalous. In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church."

From the publisher: "An inspirational classic for more than thirty years, Where Is God When It Hurts? honestly explores pain--whether physical, emotional, or spiritual--and sheds new light on God's presence in our suffering. Yancey speaks to everyone for whom life sometimes doesn't make sense."

Yancey is a well-known Christian writer and speaker, though it’s been years since he’s written anything new. I happened to see that he had a new memoir coming out last year before our Fall Book Preview and I was intrigued. I didn’t expect to be talking about it; I wondered if it would be a bit niche for our audience. But I just loved it. It’s so well done, and so timely, and so uncannily relevant to our times right now. I don’t believe you need to share Yancey’s faith to find this book fascinating; it’s an anthropological study as much as anything (though a very personal study, at that). Somehow gentle and scathing, at the same time, documenting his personal understanding of his family, and larger understanding of the society he was raised in. Serious Educated vibes, the Tara Westover memoir.