Valentine’s Day Giveaway: Free Book for Book Clubs
January 27, 2011
If you’re part of a
Book Club
(of 9 people or more, please)
that hasn’t yet read
BLUE HOLE BACK HOME
(winner of the 2009 Christy Award for Best First Novel),
We invite you simply to…ask. We’ll send you a copy free.
Yep. Free. At least…well, until we run out of books set aside for this offer.
Just let us know in the comments below your name, the name and address of your book club, and the number of members–or contact the author directly through Facebook or at joyjordanlake@aol.com.
No one will check up on you, but if you DO like the book, we’d love you to recommend it to your club, and post something about it on Facebook, your blog–wherever you’d like.
Thanks for your interest. And may you curl up this winter with many good books…and much chocolate.
Blue Hole Back Home
“…beautifully crafted.”
–Leif Enger, bestselling author of Peace Like a River
Winner, 2009 Christy Award for First Novel
Chosen as the 2009 Common Book for Baylor University
Featured at readerscircle.org
Watch a television interview with the author.
When a fifteen-year-old Sri Lankan girl moves to the all-white Pisgah Ridge, Shelby Lenoir Maynard invites her to join Shelby and her brother and her brother’s friends for a swim at the Blue Hole-less in a gesture of bold social reform than because it is simply too hot to think straight. Exotic, mysterious and fiercely independent, the new girl throws the entire town into turmoil. When two different members of The Pack, as Shelby and her brother and her brother’s friends call themselves, begin exhibiting interest in the new girl and a third hints he may be conspiring with the local Klan, the Pack itself threatens to splinter. Throughout the summer, as the town’s hostilities steadily increase along with the heat, the Blue Hole remains the teenagers’ only place of real peace-and even that has its limits. Eventually, the tensions outside the Blue Hole erupt in betrayals, cross-burnings and a deadly explosion. Ultimately, though, Blue Hole Back Home is a story not only of the devastating effects of racial hatred and cowardice, but more centrally, a celebration of courage, confrontation, mercy and healing.
And now
in
LARGE PRINT,
published by Thorndike Press in 2010.
In the Bleak Mid-Winter: Book Giveaway to Churches
January 15, 2011
Free Book Offer:
If You’re a Minister
–or Chummy with Someone
Who Is–
or if You’re a Church
Leader…
We’re giving away a few copies of Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous: Ten Alarming Words of Faith, which has been successfully used for retreats, small groups, Sunday School classes and other studies across denominational lines (please see the publisher’s description and Publishers Weekly review below).
“If we are spiritually prepared, we are able to see God’s face in a stranger. That what Joy’s book is about”
–from the foreword by Dr. Tony Campolo
Blasting the facade that sometimes makes Christianity into pretty promises and plastic grace, Joy Jordan-Lake considers the often uncomfortable path of genuine faith.
Jesus offers grace and mercy, but he’s also ratcheted up all the rules. Nice as it would be to frame him simply as a hip, mercy-dispensing kind of Malibu Ken with long, sun-streaked hair, good teeth and dark skin, the stories we have about him are a lot more disturbing than that. We hear about celebrations that begin with a wake, about people who don’t use their talents well being bounced clear out of the club, and about how it’s not nearly enough just to not avoid murder, stealing, committing adultery, or telling lies.
In this unconventional, sharp-witted, challenging book, Joy-Jordan-Lake explores ten reasons that Jesus makes her nervous-and why that nervousness is such a good thing! Each chapter examines one commonly tossed-about term (such as Resurrection, Blessedness, Community) and explores the potentially alarming, even dangerous implications of actually living out these words. Tossed-about terms with real meaning can reveal a Jesus worth living and dying for, and together this understanding can become our greatest source of hope and purpose.
“In this collection of meditations on some of the themes that undergird and define the Christian spiritual life, Jordan-Lake confronts what it means for believers to experience the difficult and disconcerting and, frankly, appalling teachings of Jesus. A professor at Belmont University and a former Baptist chaplain at Harvard University , the author mines her personal history as a pastor, mother, social justice activist and friend to illumine and interpret ideas such as resurrection and hope. Sometimes wry, occasionally stern, Jordan-Lake, with a touch of Southern gothic sensibility, argues that foundational concepts of Christian living, like worship and blessedness, may often be disruptive, disturbing, frequently joyful and often deeply life-changing experiences. …[S]he has a gift for welcoming, lucid and insightful prose….”
The book is yours for the asking–just leave a comment below with your church or home address–or, for more privacy, send a Facebook message to Joy Jordan-Lake or email the author at joyjordanlake@aol.com. All we ask is that you are at least considering the book for possible future use in your church setting. No salesman (or woman) will call. And the author, just in case she’s a personal friend of yours, won’t know if you’ve ordered copies by the case in the future or not–no worries about hurting feelings. But if you do find the book helpful, we’d love to know. So feel free to ask, and it shall be given to you–while supplies last.
Grace and Peace to You this Mid-Winter.
Warmly,
Joy
Or, if you’d like to order from Amazon now, click below:
Why Jesus Makes Me Nervous: Ten Alarming Words of Faith
Giveaways for February/March: the Luck of the Irish to You!
February 11, 2010
Enter the Drawing for a Free Book
before St. Patrick’s Day!
We regularly give away signed copies of Joy’s books, and you’ve come to the right place to enter.
The next drawing will take place on St. Patrick’s Day. So, the luck of the Irish to you!
The winner will have his or her choice of the two books below:
A collection of stories, poems and essays from various seasons of women’s lives, GRIT & GRACE was described by The Chicago Tribune as: “Written with much heart and wit, this little gem of a book touches on the ordinary and profound experiences that make up a woman’s life . . . a poignant and satisfying collection . . . funny and sad, inspiring and awfully surprising.”
OR
Winner of the 2009 Christy Award for First Novel
Chosen as the 2009 Common Book for Baylor University
“Funny and beautifully crafted” –Leif Enger, bestselling author of Peace Like a River
For more information on Blue Hole Back Home, please see Joy Jordan-Lake’s website under Books-Fiction in the menu bar and under the main page feature article at bottom left
To be including in the drawing, just leave your name and a brief comment–a one-line hello is fine–on this blog.
If you’re part of an academic or community group, book club, or other organization that might consider using one of Joy’s books for discussion, please let us know.
If your name is drawn, we’ll contact you to request a mailing address for the free book. All names not drawn will be automatically entered in the next drawing.
And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!
Connect with Joy
