We love discussing our BookNotes columns on facebook and twitter and are glad for friends that find us there. 

Those that have actually subscribed to BookNotes, though, so they can get my book reviews sent automatically to their in-boxes, well, they really set our little bookish hearts aflutter.  Anyone can easily enter their email address into that little field at the website; to do so means you are some kind of fan (or maybe just snooping, to keep tabs on us.)  We assume the former, and we are grateful.

So, thanks to the e-mail tribe.

And to you’all, we offer an apology for an e-mail glitch causing you to miss a few of my recent posts.  For the first time ever the automatic thingie didn’t do its thing.  When we realized not too many people were replying to our post-Jubilee sale that came with a 30% discount on a whole batch of good titles, and a free book offer, or even that BOGO Scot McKnight offer we did after the two Jubilee posts, we knew something was fishy.

And then this morning you got a heckuva long one, maybe four long BookNotes all strung together.  Whew.  I don’t blame you if you just hit delete.

However, if you did brave the email jungle and read through those reports and reviews and ruminations, we salute you.

Here is what we’ll do: first, we have extended the deadlines for those offers—the two post-Jubilee 30% offer + free book deals, and the Buy One Get One Free Scot McKnight giveaway.  We’ll keep the deals from those three posts going for subscribers through the end of the day, Monday, March 19th.

AND, as the late night commercials say, “wait, there’s more!”  Since I’m asking you to hang in there with us, and are grateful for the graciousness you’ve shown us by reading my reviews and putting up with our small town ways, we are going to toss in another book with any order we get through Monday.  It is one you that you will love.

WE WILL SEND IT TO YOU ABSOLUTELY FREE.  All you have to do is check out those last three BookNotes columns from subscribers may have missed and place an order.

The free one we are sending is called Days of Grace Through the Year  by Lewis B. Smedes (IVP)  Our friend Jeff Crosby did a great job combing through Smedes’ extensive body of work and selecting excerpts of the very best pages, with the very best lines, to remind you of God’s great grace, and the beauty of fine writing, and the goodness of a theologian who could talk to ordinary folks with such extraordinary kindness.  (Books & Culture editor John Wilson has a great foreword noting Smedes’ direct approach, his lack of unctuousness, and his various voices.)  We have always loved Lew Smedes whether talking about forgiveness or finding hope in troublesome times or writing about sex or shame or social justice. 

This attractive year-long anthology is our gift to you if you place any order yet this week. 

Hopefully, those who have subscribed will this time automatically get this post.  Let the order flurry begin!

BookNotes