Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters

Erica Komisar

Being There examines what maternal absence means for children. Erica Komisar says there’s really no argument about the importance of mothers, especially in the first three years of a child’s life. She notes that work demands and digital distractions keep mothers from bonding and being attentive to their children. That’s the helpful part of the book—and mothers who believe their presence isn’t necessary would benefit from reading it. Less helpful liberal policy prescriptions and Buddhist/psychotherapeutic mindfulness exercises make up large parts of the book.

Capital Gaines: Smart Things I Learned Doing Stupid Stuff

Chip Gaines

Chip Gaines (from the popular Fixer Upper TV show) writes about his life, his failures, and the success of the popular home design business he built with his wife Joanna. The breezy writing style makes readers feel they’re getting a peek behind the scenes of a business built on gut instincts grounded in hard work and a willingness to fail: “For people with a winner mentality, there’s a positive waiting for you no matter the outcome. For those with a loser mentality, if there’s a negative outcome anywhere along the way, you perceive that you’ve lost.”

Sisters First: Stories from our Wild and Wonderful Life

Jenna Bush Hager & Barbara Pierce Bush

The daughters of President George W. Bush made many smart choices in writing this book. Most chapters focus on their relationships with their famous relatives, as they pull back the curtain to show their parents and grandparents in unguarded, unscripted moments. The twins let their individual personalities show in the alternating chapters each pens. They describe their own growing up, their well-publicized foibles as young adults, and the lives they now lead. Areas of policy disagreement with their parents merit brief mentions, but that’s not the book’s focus. The result is a warm, often tender portrait of the Bush family.

The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing your Novel or Memoir

Dinty W. Moore

Publishing a novel or memoir has never been easier—but writing a good novel or memoir is as difficult as ever. Dinty W. Moore provides good, practical writing advice, starting with a useful metaphor—the “invisible magnetic river.” That refers to the deep, heart story that should underlie and connect a book’s events and scenes. His chapters provide examples of common problems with characters, openings, and settings. He then offers cures for them—and exercises to help writers work through their problems. The book has a friendly tone, avoids most crude language, and comes from the head of Ohio University’s creative writing program.

AFTERWORD

Jared Mellinger’s Think Again: Relief from the Burden of Introspection (New Growth Press, 2017) delivers on the promise of its subtitle. Readers can glean the contents from chapter titles like “Fighting False Guilt” and “Self-Forgetfulness.” Mellinger’s writing is pithy and to the point: “Our Father in heaven delights to give us good things to enjoy, but we constantly second-guess our experience of his generosity. Where he is lavish toward us, we are stingy and overly scrupulous. Where he gives no laws, we make laws for ourselves.”

Mellinger isn’t just an ace diagnostician. He offers many wise and practical helps for turning away from self-focus. A clear Christ-focus underlies the entire book: “However deeply I am stuck in myself, the Lord will rescue me from constant self-consciousness and renegade self-reflection. And he invites me to fix my eyes on him.” —S.O.