Pick up your next read for the summer!

LBP acquisitions editor and marketing director, Tessa, has picked out her favorite LBP books that are just right for the summer. Make sure you pick up your copies today for a summer filled with good reads!

American Fantasy by Steven Faviano

Between political unrest, deepening inequality, and ambiguity across relationships, the future is thrown into uncertainty with no room to break free. Even the freedom to choose how to move forward is bogged down by complacent, repetitive discourse on TV. The line between right and wrong may be blurred, but one thing will always be true: the hope to build a better world is in all of us. It’s inevitable that through comradery—this unity—we will raise the standard for how our lives are truly lived. This is the core of American Fantasy—where the desire to grow, create and explore is stagnated by the everyday demand to survive. You’re valid to be exhausted and unmotivated—every one of us has experienced loss to some degree. This book rejects the notion that this country is beyond repair, that the problems we face are impossible to overcome. The power of the people comes from our individual strength to shed the past, heal, empathize with each other today, and fight for an inclusive tomorrow. How does your own heart touch the person beside you?

A Woman’s Voice Should be Heard by Aggie Jordan

This is Aggie's story of growing up in a staunch Irish Catholic family, attending 12 years of Catholic school, joining the convent at 17 years of age, as a teacher-nun for 14 years, and eventually an entrepreneur preparing her to fight the battles for women’s equality. Your journey may be different. Whatever it has been, it influences who you are today and what you can accomplish when your voice is heard. Aggie Jordan’s journey from nun to feminist tells her stories of what influenced her to become a nun and her metamorphosis into a businesswoman who fought for women’s equality. Her history can teach us how we might progress and win the battles that continue today. Women who work inside or outside the home, women entrepreneurs, and women raising children seek inspiration, hope, and encouragement. She hopes this book will enrich their spirits to continue the fight for equality. The book shouts out to women how important their women friends are, how women mentors can be the springboard to success, and most of all, using their voices to be heard in facing their futures. Here’s hoping these stories encourage you to become visible in your journey by making sure your voice is heard.

The New-Old Quaker Women’s Club by Susan McCracken

Beth Smith sits in open worship at her Meeting and meditates on Micah 6:8, “And what doth God require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” The still, small voice within moves her to start the New–Old Quaker Women’s Club in order to determine how she can do just that. Through the club, Beth and her friends, Sylvia, Lois, and Nancy, learn about Quaker women who followed the leading of the spirit to make the world a better place, gleaning ideas for ways they can do the same in the modern world. Along the way, the women recall challenges from their pasts and new possibilities for their futures, from building closer friendships with each other to improving their relationships with their children and aging parents and experiencing the joy and hope of new love once more. But can the women accomplish what they set out to do, beat the odds, and learn from their predecessors how to “be the church" in the world?