In this month’s roundup of the best-reviewed BookLife titles, we highlight a handbook for readers searching for a spiritual path, a historical ghost story, and a book that examines the spirituality of the Boss.
The Haunting of Thores-Cross
Karen Perkins
Synopsis: Perkins’s suspenseful novel chronicles the ghostly tale of a wronged woman in an 18th-century Scottish village and the woman who tells her story 230 years later.
PW’s Takeaway: This gloomy ghost story provides page-turning chills and sympathy for scorned women.
Comparable Titles: Ghost Story, The Haunting of Hill House
Sample Line: “Darkness closed in—a total darkness now, no torches to light my way. I succumbed to it, my last thought a promise to bring my curses to pass. I would destroy this valley.”
The Eleven Questions
Mark Pitstick
Synopsis: Who am I? Why is there so much suffering? This short handbook aims to provide answers to 11 such questions via interviews with renowned experts on consciousness.
PW’s Takeaway: The interviews in this short book will be great for anyone searching for a new spiritual path.
Comparable Titles: Life After Death, How to Know God
Sample Line: These answers are very important as they form the very framework that allows you to live and die with peace, joy, clarity, and purpose.
Earthking
Christopher C. Hall
Synopsis: When the king’s advisor is found dead, an ancient evil reappears.
PW’s Takeaway: Hall creates a fast-paced and absorbing fantasy.
Comparable Titles: John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series
The Grace of God and the Grace of Man
Azzan Yadin-Israel
Synopsis: The book brings Scriptural scholarship to a study of Bruce Springsteen.
PW’s Takeaway: A fresh addition to the burgeoning scholarship on one of America’s most famous musicians.
Comparable Titles: Bruce
A Peace of My Mind
John Noltner
Synopsis: This collection of 136 portraits provides a revealing snapshot of what’s on the minds of everyday Americans.
PW’s Takeaway: A powerful political statement about the backbone of America—its citizens.
Comparable Titles: The Americans, Humans of New York
