December 13, 2006   • BEHIND THE NEWS   • Doubleday Signs Pope Benedict   • CBD Buys Gift Cataloguer   • A Clarifiction and a Correction • SHORT TAKES   • Authors on the Air; New Top Editor at Liturgical; More Catholic Product from STL/Appalachian; New Christian Fiction Speakers Bureau • BOOKS BRIEFLY   • A Romantic, Spiritual Journey • SPOTLIGHT ON...Hip-Hop Spirituality   • New Ministries—and Books—Evangelize a Generation • RELIGION IN REVIEW   • Three Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, January 15   • A Faith Fiction Review Coming in PW on Monday, December 18 • BESTSELLERS: December PW Bestsellers • COMING ATTRACTIONS • HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE BEHIND THE NEWS Doubleday Signs Pope Benedict by Rachel Deahl Pope Benedict XVI’s next book, Jesus of Nazareth, has been acquired by Random House imprint Doubleday. The first book from Benedict since he became pope, the title is scheduled for publication in spring 2007. Bill Barry, v-p and publisher of Doubleday’s religious division, acquired world English, first serial, audio and exclusive Spanish-language rights in North America from Italian publisher Rizzoli. Started in the summer of 2003, the book is, according to a statement from Doubleday, “the culmination of Pope Benedict’s lifelong quest to defend historical Christianity in the modern world.” Quoting the book’s preface, the statement goes on to summarize the book as “an expression of [Pope Benedict’s] personal search for the face of the Lord.” CBD Buys Gift Cataloguer by Lynn Garrett Christian Book Distributors, which calls itself “the largest religious catalogue company in the world,” has purchased Best to You, a Christian catalogue and Internet gift retailer. Best to You was founded in 1980 to sell Christian gift items and home accessories and has developed many proprietary products over the years. In a statement , CBD president Ray Hendrickson said, “CBD sends out over 60 mailings of unique catalogues to millions of customers each year.” Products include books (more than 200,000 titles), Bibles, CDs, DVDs, gifts, toys and games. Christianbook.com, CBD’s Web site, is a five-time recipient of the BizRate Circle of Excellence Platinum Award. As part of the transition, the Colorado Springs, Colo., office of Best to You will close and some senior staff will join CBD as temporary consultants. Said Hendrickson, “Although CBD has had its own extensive, and very successful, gift and home product line for 10 years, including many CBD exclusive products, the acquisition of Best to You will allow us to take the best attributes of each company’s individual catalogue and product offerings and develop one line that continues [our] emerging strength in the Christian gift [market].” Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close on January 2, 2007, were not disclosed. A Clarification and a Correction An article in the Dec. 6 issue of RBL, “Nelson Tightens Editorial Standards for Authors,” read that … “future contracts will require authors—even those writing in non-religion categories like business--to signal their agreement with both the Nicene Creed… and Philippians 4:8 from the New Testament.” Some readers interpreted this to mean that a written statement of faith would be in the contracts that authors are required to sign. That is not what RBL's article stated, and Nelson has since said this will not be the case. The article also contained one error: RBL asserted that the Nicene Creed was accepted by only some Orthodox Christians. It is in fact accepted by all Orthodox Christians, though they do not use the phrase “and the Son” when acknowledging that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father. This phrase was added in the West in the fifth century. SHORT TAKES Authors on the Air; New Top Editor at Liturgical; More Catholic Product from STL/Appalachian; New Christian Fiction Speakers Bureau by Lynn Garrett Two authors from the Christian publishing division of Hachette Book Group USA will be getting national media attention in the coming weeks: Kristin Armstrong, author of Happily Ever After: Walking with Peace and Courage Through a Year of Divorce (FaithWords, Jan.) will be on ABC's Good Morning America on January 5. Tommy Tenney, author of The Ultimate Comeback: How To Turn a Bad Night Into a Good Day (FaithWords, Jan.) will be on the American Family Radio program Today's Issues on January 2. Read the full story...   BOOKS BRIEFLY A Romantic, Spiritual Journey by Juli Cragg Hilliard The idea for a book about the lives, romance and Christian faith of married actors Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett came up at a gumbo party at the apartment of jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, who lives in their New York City building. Vance told RBL he had been chatting with some of the other men there for a couple of hours. Then, "This guy said to me, 'You know, you and your wife should write a book.'" The guy was literary agent Manie Barron. The book, Friends: A Love Story—co-written with Hilary Beard—will be published Feb. 14 by Kimani Press as one of Harlequin's first big ventures into inspirational nonfiction. "We don't really know how to write a book; we're not writers, so the thought never really crossed our minds," Vance said. Barron set them up with Beard, and Bassett and Vance spoke with her together and separately over the next year. Read the full story... SPOTLIGHT ON...Hip-Hop Spirituality New Ministries—and Books—Evangelize a Generation by Donna Freitas It seems a shame to read about a musical genre without sampling its songs—especially when the genre in question is hip hop, one of the most danceable around. Fans of The Hip Hop Prayer Book (Church Publishing, June) will no longer be disappointed when they feel the spirit move them. Worshipers can now purchase a companion CD, And the Word Was Hip Hop: HipHopEMass (Church Publishing, Nov.), a series of 13 original songs produced by Episcopal priest Timothy Holder and the same group of rappers who helped Holder do the prayer book. "Communities already using the prayer book requested the book's raps on CD," explained Church editor Lucas Smith. "The Hip Hop Prayer Book had a very organic genesis," Smith said. "We heard about the hip hop masses happening at Trinity Church in the South Bronx and several of us took a trip there to see what was going on. We quickly realized that a powerful ministry was being born." Instead of a choir, a hip hop mass uses a "hype man"—a rapper or rappers—with a backbeat, "speaking the language of the streets to open up the gospel," said Smith. Read the full story... RELIGION IN REVIEW Three Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, January 15 Buddha Is as Buddha Does: A Practical Guide to Enlightened Living Lama Surya Das. Harper San Francisco, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-06-074729-9 The much-published author and respected Tibetan Buddhist teacher offers a guide for spiritual development based on the paramitas, traditional Buddhist teachings. READ FULL REVIEW Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea. Vanderbilt Univ. Press, $24.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-8265-1547-6 Frawley-O'Dea, a clinical psychologist who has worked with victims of sexual abuse, examines the Catholic clergy sexual-abuse crisis in this well-documented compendium that incorporates her analysis of what went wrong. READ FULL REVIEW The Bishop of Rwanda: Finding Forgiveness Amidst a Pile of Bones John Rucyahana with James Riordan. W, $19.99 (216p) ISBN 978-0-8499-0052-5 Bishop John Rucyahana, an ethnic Tutsi refugee in exile, was a leader in the Anglican Church of Uganda during the genocide of his people in Rwanda. READ FULL REVIEW A Faith Fiction Review Coming in PW on Monday, December 18 Summer of Light W. Dale Cramer. Baker/Bethany House, $13.99 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-7642-2996-1 As its title would suggest, Cramer's fourth novel is lighter and less gritty than its critically acclaimed predecessors (Levi's Will; Bad Ground), but it is a thoughtful and engaging read. When ironworker Mick Brannigan loses his construction job, he becomes a stay-at-home dad to his three children. Especially troublesome is four-year-old Dylan, who may have sensory integration dysfunction (and is in trouble for such things as licking the day-care teacher's ankle because he likes the texture of pantyhose on his tongue). The Brannigans' Georgia neighbors include a snobbish, wealthy couple and the contrasting Hap Harrelson, a grizzled fix-it man in unbuttoned overalls who is accompanied by a pack of beagles. A handless, homeless man (who faintly echoes a messianic character in Cramer's debut novel, Sutter's Cross) serves as sort of a supernatural figure. Layne Brannigan, a paralegal, is a strong woman figure for faith fiction, both nurturing of her family and talented in her profession. Cramer allows Mick to be reasonably competent but thoroughly male in his parenting style, and Mick's discovery of his creative talent for photography is an uplifting addition. Although the plot feels pieced together and Cramer occasionally narrates instead of letting the story unfold, the enjoyable cast of characters will keep the reader interested. (Feb.) A Starred Review Coming in PW on Monday, January 15 The Water Will Hold You: A Skeptic Learns to Pray Lindsey Crittenden. Harmony, $22 (240p) 978-0-307-34735-0 Ten years ago Crittenden walked timidly into an Episcopal church in Berkeley. Overwhelmed with grief, she needed something to sustain her the way water had held her when she was a child learning to swim. Therapy had helped her deal with her beloved younger brother's death, but it was not enough. A priest suggested prayer. In this exquisitely written memoir, she traces her experience of prayer from hesitant beginnings—"I left 'God' out of it, as I repeated the simple statement. 'You are here, I am here'"—to regular, disciplined practice. Prayer, she told an uncle, was like writing. "If I waited for inspiration, I'd never write a word.... I had to make prayer a habit, to go to it the way I went each morning to the desk. Not to summon prayer, but to tap into what was already there." Crittenden, whose essay on her mother's death appeared in Best American Spiritual Writing 2004, faced repeated bereavement as she learned to trust God, herself, and others. Nowadays, she writes, "being in community holds me like a trapeze harness for sailing out over the void." Fans of Nora Gallagher and Patricia Hampl will welcome her narrative of spiritual exploration and discovery. (Mar. 20) BESTSELLER BYTES Chart Topper Commentary by Daisy Maryles Max Lucado's Facing Your Giants had an announced 400,000-copy first printing and has been licensed in 10 foreign languages so far. PW's review praised his "lively language and casual style" and said "his spiritual depth will challenge and amaze." Publisher W reports more than 50 million units of Lucado's titles in print worldwide, in more than 23 languages. His 2007 national tour includes appearances at six Women of Faith conferences (San Antonio, Tex.; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle;D.C.; Portland, Ore.; and Tampa, Fla.), with an estimated total attendance of more than 100,000. Read the full story... PW RELIGION BESTSELLERS: December Hardcover The God Delusion. Richard Dawkins. Houghton Mifflin, $27 ISBN 0-618-68000-4 Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris. Knopf, $16.95 ISBN 0-307-26577-3 The Purpose-Driven Life Rick Warren. Zondervan, $19.99 ISBN 0-310-20571-9 The Confident Woman Joyce Meyer. FaithWords, $22.99 ISBN 1-446-53198-7 Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? Philip Yancey. Zondervan, $21.99 ISBN 1-310-27105-3 Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul John and Stasi Eldredge. Thomas Nelson, $22.99 ISBN 0-06-055828-8 Facing Your Giants: The God Who Made a Miracle Out of David Stands to Make One Out of You. Max Lucado. W, $24.99 ISBN 0-8499-0181-2 Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future Joel C. Rosenberg. Tyndale, $19.99 ISBN 0-4143-1135-4 Your Best Life Now Joel Osteen. FaithWords, $19.95 ISBN 0-446-53275-4 The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew-Three Women Search for Understanding. Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner. Free Press, $25 ISBN 0-7432-9047-X Paperback 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. Baker/Revell, $24.99 ISBN 0-8007-5949-4 Family Karen Kingsbury. Tyndale. $13.99 ISBN 0-8423-8746-83 The Brethren Beverly Lewis. Baker/Bethany House, $13.95 ISBN 1-7642-0107-7 The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman. Moody/Northfield, $12.99 ISBN 1-881273-15-6 Before I Wake Dee Henderson. Tyndale, $13.99 ISBN 1-4143-0815-9 The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Sam Harris. Norton, $13.95 ISBN 0-393-32765-5 Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World John Hagee. Strang/FrontLine, $14.99 ISBN 0-8423-8744-7 Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis. Harper San Francisco, $10 ISBN 0-06-065292-6 Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Donald Miller. Thomas Nelson, $13.99 ISBN 0-7852-6370-5 Battlefield of the Mind Joyce Meyer. FaithWords, $14.99 ISBN 0-446-69109-7     COMING ATTRACTIONS Next week in RBL we’ll look at a self-publishing success story with a Christmas angle, and highlight the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.   PW Religion BookLine from Publishers Weekly Editors: Lynn Garrett (lgarrett@reedbusiness.com); Daisy Maryles (dmaryles@reedbusiness.com) Contributing Editor: Jana Riess © 2006 Reed Business Information. Published weekly. If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copy and pasting the following URL into your browser: publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6399404/2287.html To read past issues, click here. 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