Nearing Home by Billy Graham (Thomas Nelson) has been named 2012 Christian Book of the Year by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). A meditation on aging, Nearing Home is the 93-year-old evangelist’s first Christian Book of the Year, though two of his titles have received other awards from ECPA, and he was honored with the association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. Nearing Home has been among the top 10 bestsellers for 2011 in the Christian market, and also made PW’s 2011 bestselling list, with 358,000 copies sold.
The Christian Book Awards were established by ECPA in 1978 as the Gold Medallion Book Awards. This year Jordon Lifetime Achievement Awards were given to Gary and Carol Johnson for their work and leadership at Bethany House Publishers; Carol Johnson is credited with pioneering Christian fiction publishing. The late evangelical author and scholar John R.W. Stott also was honored with a Jordon award. The award for best first-time author went to Mesu Andrews for Love Amid the Ashes (Revell). Winners were announced Monday during ECPA’s annual Executive Leadership Summit near Chicago.
Other 2012 Christian Book Award winners:
In Bibles:
ESV Student Study Bible (Crossway)
In Bible reference:
Dictionary of Christian Spirituality by Glen G. Scorgie (Zondervan)
In children's:
The Story for Children: A Storybook Bible by Max Lucado, Randy Frazee, and Karen Davis Hill (Zonderkidz)
In fiction:
The Queen by Steven James (Revell)
In inspiration:
The Law of Happiness by Henry Cloud (Howard Books)
In nonfiction:
Close Enough to Hear God Breathe by Greg Paul (Thomas Nelson)
