Thank you, friends and customers (and customers becoming friends) for reading BookNotes and for your support of our bookstore. Whether your local or among our pod of customers in Alaska, we are grateful for you.

This first little batch of books that I mention are all 20% off.But the main attraction for the next few days will be this massive sale on Brian McLaren books. A whopping 40% off. 

Like many of you these days, I’ve been thinking a lot about what sustains hope. And of course that means looking at the most intransigent problems of our time, the matter of what drives our anxieties. Yes, its the maddening Trumpian nonsense each day — despicable and worthy of our civic resistance — but more, the malaise, the spirit of the times, the idols and ideologies, our withered imaginations and the inadequate worldviews which lead to all sorts of crises (from tragically-increasing suicide rates to terrifying climate change concerns, from hard family problems and so many global wars.) In a word, doom.

An array of books have shaped some of my thinking these days or at least have keep me somewhat sane. In case you’re wondering, there are the brilliant agrarian principles of hope found in Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis by Norman Wirzba (Yale University Press; $26.00) and, in considerable contrast, the audaciously optimistic new book by Ezra Klein, Abundance (Avid Reader Press; $30.00) which I’ve only just started. I was deeply moved and wonderfully charmed by the honest memoir by the wonderful New York Times journalist Frank Bruni, The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found (Avid Reader Press; $19.99) which he wrote after losing sight in one eye (and fearing he would go completely blind.) Its vulnerable storytelling about his own life and his upbeat conversations with others who have overcome (or at least coped well with) incredible difficulties, setbacks, and struggles, was downright inspiring.

I’ve revisited a book I raved about a year ago, Telling Stories in the Dark: Finding Healing and Hope in Sharing Our Sadness, Grief, Trauma, and Pain by my friend Jeffrey Monroe (Reformed Journal Books; $21.99) and is so, so worth reading, with hard stories told and gracefully evaluated and explored for deeper glimpses of hope. And I just finished a book that has been on my stack for years, Demon Camp: The Strange and Terrible Saga of a Soldier’s Return from War by Jen Percy (Simon & Schuster; $17.00) which is one of the weirder (and captivating) books I’ve read in years. (It is a creatively told bit of modern reportage about a haunted soldier back from Iraq and Afghanistan who helps facilitate wild exorcisms among deeply scared and often suicidal war vets. One reviewer called it “visceral and seductive” — that’s putting it mildly. It’s creepy. The Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Forever War, Dexter Wilkins, says it is “a tale so extraordinary that at time it seems conjured from a dream; as it unfolds it’s not just Caleb Daniels that comes into focus, but America, too.” Although the author has studied books like Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman, she doesn’t cite the latest books (we have several) about faith-based efforts to psychologically help those with what some describe as moral injury, from having seen and done terrible things in battle. Percy seems to suggest that our culture is in very deep trouble, and unhinged (as the characters in this story truly are; none seem Biblically-rooted) Pentecostals and their spiritual conspiracy-theory mindset isn’t helping. Gasp!

Speaking of weighty assessment of our cultural moment, I previously reviewed and admired the gracious and empathetic travelogue by former conservative evangelical turned progressive Lutheran pastor, Angela Denker (Red State Christians: A Journey into White Christian Nationalism and the Wreckage It Leaves) and her kindness remains in the even more haunting (new) report from the hinterlands, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood (Broadleaf Books; $27.99.) It deserves a bigger, more careful review but know that it is candid and direct — “unflinching” one reviewer called it. Historian and Christian critic of the religious right, Randall Balmer, notes that “readers should not be fooled by Angela Denker’s storytelling ease and graceful prose into thinking this is simply another anodyne book about child-rearing. Her arguments about the sources and the persistence of racism, misogyny, and what she calls “brutish masculinity” are powerful and, sadly, all too relevant.” She makes a powerful case against the toxic aspects of this fundamentalist sub-culture of religious extremism and authoritarianism. There is a radicalization happening around us and she exposes much of it as it influences many young white men, in some exceptionally conservative faith communities. Jemar Tisby calls it “essential” and Kristen Du Mez, of course, has been touting it.

And yet another wise author with an extraordinary book that seems so very appropriate to mention in this short list: Steve Charleston, an Episcopalian Bishop and Native elder and author who offers Christian perspective on native spiritual and advocates for justice for indigenous peoples, has most recently written We Survived the End of the World: Lessons From Native American on Apocalypse and Hope (Broadleaf; $26.99.) What a book!

Some who are aware of the threatening cultural trends and pressures these days talk about apocalypse. The end of an era, if not an end of the civilization as we know it. Hence, new phrases in our vocabulary like “climate grief.” Hence, the aforementioned dread and doom. Charleston — in a graceful and brilliant move — says if we want insight about coping with such impending tragedy, we might learn from the indigenous people groups who, in fact, faced forced removal and cultural genocide; a very certain sort of end of their world. In what some have called “poignant and deeply moving” prose,  Reverend Charleston explains how Native America has already survived apocalypse — and has lessons of courage and hope to share. In a style that is profound, poetic, and yet urgently serious, he “insightfully weaves history and activism” and helps us imagine what the end of a world might be like, and what it means to live through it. It is a book that I suspect you will never forget.

So, yes, I’ve been pondering some ugly stuff, sad about how things are eroding the faith of people I know, and yet always looking at voices of deep hope and wise goodness. Reading is a necessary solace and adds grit to the texture of our discipleship. From books like Fire From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire by Sarah Jaffe (Bold Type Books; $32.50) to The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr (Convergent; $27.00) to the latest collection of Walter Brueggemann essays, Lament That Generates Covenant (Cascade; $23.00) there are eloquent and interesting voices to walk alongside us in these dark days… I’m not sure where you might hear about these sorts of books, but we are glad to get to share these that I’ve been pondering of late.

We commend these that I’ve mentioned above, — we’ll happily deduct 20% off any of those listed prices — but the heart of this BookNotes is to remind you of a particularly helpful author and friend. We have some of Brian McLaren’s books on sale, for five days only, at the extra discount of 40% off. Consider this a reader’s guide to most of his core work. After Saturday they will revert to our customary BookNotes 20% off.

10 Brian McLaren books, each 40% OFF — this 5-day sale expires May 10th.

(While supplies last.)

Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart Brian D. McLaren (St. Martin’s Press) $28.00 // OUR 40% OFF SALE = $16.80

Speaking of impending doom and coping well as people of faith with realism and hope, turning our understandable anxieties into what one might call sacred activism, the newest book by Brian McLaren is just that. I described it at BookNotes in some detail when it first came out but have, now, reason to unload some extras at this extra deep discount.

We were with McLaren a few weeks back at an event and it was really good to connect with him again. We’ve served him in some other book events, and, during the quarantine season of Covid we helped launch a book by having autographed plates. To say Brian has been kind and appreciative of us is nearly an understatement. And, despite some controversy among some traditionalist evangelicals concerned about his shift to a more mainline denominational / ecumenical orientation — what he early one called a “generous orthodoxy” —we have found him to be thoughtful and gracious and a very impressive writer. We would recommend any of his books. And this one is a powerhouse.

Naturally, there are few bits I might have worded a bit differently. No matter, there is no other book like this, none. This is an extraordinary project and we sincerely recommend it.

I’ll describe a few more that we have here, now, at an extra great sale price, but this one is his newest and just a fabulous study of how to understand our times and determine ways to live with resilience and hope. As podcaster and author Tripp Fuller  puts it, Life After Doom is “more than just a book! It’s a movement, a manifesto, and, most important, a road map to a brighter tomorrow.”

Not unlike the book I promoted last week — Reconciliation in a Michigan Watershed: Restoring Ken-O-Sha by Gail Heffner & Dave Warners — Brian has been significantly influenced by friendships with indigenous leaders and authors He happily cites Kaitlin Curtice, Randy Woodley, Steve Charleston (who I mentioned above.) This is wise and good, this interaction with Native worldviews and faith practices that might influence those of us in the more dominant culture to find fresh ways to live out our faith with greater faithfulness and integrity.

Listen to these two friends, authors I so appreciate, as they say why you should buy this book now.

With his usual patience and clarity, Brian McLaren invites us to do necessary spiritual work… And we discover, after doom, the magnificent and beautiful task set before us. This book has convinced me that indeed, we must do this inner work now. ― Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth

When I finished Life After Doom, I was overcome by a single unexpected response: gratitude. In these pages, Brian is pastor, teacher, therapist and prophet as he guides us through the multiple crises of our current situation. He challenges both debilitating despair and false hope to awaken our capacity to dream and act courageously for the future. You will thank him. ― Diana Butler Bass, author of Grounded: Finding God in the World-A Spiritual Revolution

A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith Brian D. McLaren (HarperOne) $16.99 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $10.19

Frederich Buechner reminded us that doubts are “the ants in the pants of faith” and while this book isn’t exactly about doubt, it is about new ways of framing old, often complicated doctrines, and fresh ways of asserting the gospel in ways that might be plausible and helpful to those who can no longer abide certain older orthodoxies.  Years ago we were disinvited to a thoughtful Christian event because they heard that we stocked — and would bring to their event — some of this book. I say, what is there to be afraid of? Read widely, take up a mature approach, think it through yourself and, with an open mind and an eager heart, enjoy the provocation of a master thinker .

Years ago (it came out in 2010) Brian invited us to reconfigure faith to be more Christ-like and responsible, offering new ways to read the Bible, to understand the violence in the tradition, to understand the essence of the gospel (in light of Jesus’s own declarations about the Kingdom of God) and other sorts of festering questions that have perplexed many. From the context of ecumenical and mainline believers, this book isn’t that radical and his answers — while fresh and interesting — were actually not that controversial. From the point of view of the conservative evangelical community in which he pastors and wrote for so many years, it was nearly traitorous.

Just the other day, listening to some solid and godly (Reformed) faith leaders, I heard their dismay about how many churches are failing to step up to this cultural moment, in fidelity to the prophetic tradition and the ways of Jesus, and one said we need “a new kind of Christian witness.” I don’t think she was alluding to this much-discussed book, but — agree or not with all of his conclusions — it certainly would be a good book to talk through for those yearning for a better face to lively, robust, Christian faith these days.

A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-Yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian  Brian D. McLaren (Zondervan) $14.99 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $8.99

Do you remember this book and the huffy ridicule it received in some circles? Well, the most mean rebukes were from the fundamentalists and super strict Calvinists because they felt — and I think they were mostly right — that the chapter on them was the least successful (they would say unfair) chapter in the book. In most of the chapters, Brian — not being of that faith tradition (he was not a mainline Protestant, a Catholic, an Anabaptist or Anglican, after all) — was able to say what he liked about that tradition, what its strengths are, why it has good gifts to offer as a part of a balanced and creative theological identity. (This is not that far from what the great Richard Foster did in his lovely and solid Streams of Living Water.) Alas, because he came out of a harsh fundamentalism and didn’t have much good to say about that conservative sort of dogmatic Calvinism, he conflated those two and was more critical of them than he was the others. It wasn’t the best chapter in the book.

In any event this is his fabulously entertaining, visionary, broad-minded and (mostly) generous invitation to develop a hybrid sort of faith that draws on the best of every tradition. Or, at least, to know a bit about them.

Not a bad idea, eh? Read it and think what you may, and ponder how you might be shaped by the best of these various sorts of Christian traditions. Consider what he gets right and what he gets wrong — in any case, it’s a blast, and a good, good exercise.

I could be picky about every chapter since I have feelings about, well, about every single group he honors and critiques. And yet I love A Generous Orthodoxy. That last chapter says he is “depressed yet hopeful.” Me too, many days. You should buy it now while supplies last.

Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in 12 Simple Words Brian D. McLaren (HarperOne) $17.99 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $10.79

I don’t know if authors even realize these sorts of things — they have bigger issues to concern themselves with — but I’m sort of proud to have an endorsement on the back of this one. What an honor it is to be asked by a publisher to say a few words about a book or to have a commented cited. I really liked this — I wasn’t sure I would, and the title strikes some as unhelpful — so I was jazzed to see my blurb on the back of the paperback.  Here is what I said (or at least part of the part they posted on the book back cover, between the starred review at the Library Journal and the nice quip by Father Richard Rohr.

“I was absolutely hooked from the first page… I found it to be one of the most stimulating books on spiritual formation I have read in ages.”

Yep, it was true. I recall telling everybody about it, trying to convince folks it was a great read. Shane Claiborne says this “strips things down to the bare essentials… to unveil a simple love for God and neighbor that is worth devoting your life to.” Well, it isn’t that simple, as he explores all manner of quandaries about the spiritual life. Yet, these “12 essential words” are truly a brilliant framework to hang a lot on. I loved this book and I think you might too. Please give it a try.

By the way, the 12 words are arranged in four main parts or themes: Simplicity (“The Season of Spiritual Awakening” in which he has two chapters each on three words), Complexity (“The Season of Spiritual Strengthening” which has two chapters each on three more words), Perplexity (which he calls a “Season of Spiritual Surviving” following that same pattern, two chapters each on three words.) The fourth part also has six chapters, but two do not have titles or ‘words’ which is actually pretty awesome. I loved his reflection on what he called […]. This chapter is called “Harmony: The Season of Spiritual Deepening.”  So, two chapters each on 12 words, even if the last word isn’t a word but being “clothed in silence”

The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey Brian D. McLaren (Fortress) $16.99 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $10.19

This was the first volume in what was, I supposed, to be a series called “On Location” which invited authors to reflect on their own spiritual journey while doing a travelogue type memoir. Those that have followed Brian’s work know that in his second splendid novel — The Story We Find Ourselves in: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian — the main character (struggling with questions of faith and science, truth and evidence, story and the Bible and evolution) goes to the Galapagos Islands. It made me happy that Brian actually got to go there.

It also makes me happy that this little book is dedicated to his father, who “loved the outdoors and was always ready for an adventure.” McLaren was a college English professor before being a pastor, but his reading the Good Book was also (in faithful, classic ways) supplemented (or preceded?) By his reading the Book of Nature. In this spiritual travelogue he helps us see how it’s done, attending to place and landscape, animals and creatures, history and science and the joy of discovery. It ought to be better known — even the great Barbara Brown Taylor says it may be his most significant.

Of course Galapagos was the birthplace, so to speak, of Darwin’s theories about evolution. Brian isn’t afraid of that but he does move beyond a recounting of natural theology and uses his proximity to this famous place to ponder his own evolution. Has your faith changed over the years? Does “the beauty and fragility” of your landscape hint and anything? Does God’s creation awaken your soul? You might like this nice little book.  The footnotes are pretty great, too.  Who else brings together Leonard Boff and John Muir, Pope Francis and Howard Thurman, Gilligan’s Island and Charles Darwin?

Adventures in Missing the Point Brian D. McLaren & Tony Campolo (Zondervan) $26.99 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $16.19

Half Brian and half Tony — what a great idea for lively book!

I suppose you know (and I have written on occasion) that we were more than casual friends with Tony. We sold books with and for him several times, had him here to York to speak, and visited with him in Philly. I adored his Kingdom vision, appreciated how a just-advocate could do old-school baptist altar calls, and despite his hilarity, knew he was much smarter than his critics realized. And more sensitive. He was a bold, brave, and tender man, with a heart for God and a love for God’s world. Not unlike Brian.

In the early 2000s many in the evangelical world were talking about what some called the Emergent movement and there must have been twenty books (which we still have, believe it or not) from this emerging community (and a few that were critical — we have those too.) Tony and Brian were both speakers and pastoral leaders to these rising young bucks who were “brave enough to take an honest look at the issues facing the culture-controlled church.”

It may be an overstatement or a distinction without too much of a difference, but Brian was more deeply involved in mentoring and writing about the postmodern emergent crew. Campolo was too busy raising money for third world kids and speaking at major evangelical gigs — Jubilee, Creation, international organizations. But both had legitimate concerns about the ways in which church life (both mainline denominational churches and evangelical and non-denominational ones) were co-opted by the culture and didn’t have the energy or savvy to create passionate and effective missional vision.

But the two of them together and you’ll get quite a picture of how theology and church and spirituality was being considered by many at the turn of the third millennium. They tried to “uncover and name faulty conclusions, suppositions and assumptions.” They addressed some deep stuff and some hot button issues. They both are, in different ways and about somewhat different matters, both skeptical and sympathetic.

They invite all sorts – liberals and conservatives, old-fashioned church folks and edgy young street workers, evangelists and reformers, Catholics and Protestants, Pentecostals and Presbyterians, to stretch our thinking and discover fresh ways to live out faith in healthy and fruitful ways.

I loved this book. Glancing through the table of contents I realize it is needed now more than it was then. Both are good storytellers and good thinkers. It isn’t exactly a point-counterpoint, but in each section, one of them starts off and then the other sort of responds. Sometimes they agree deeply and other times, well… you can read it for yourself. It’s a blast.

The back and forth conversation is arranged in several chapters in three major arenas — God, World, and Soul.  You read their evaluations and proposals on everything from the nature of the Kiddo of God to how to think about the end times, from evangelism to prayer to worship, from the future of seminary education to the importance of women’s roles in leadership. There are discussion questions, too inviting readers to join the conversation.

We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation Brian D. McLaren (Jericho Books) $19.00 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $11.40

To say that this is a daily devotional sort of sells it short, I think, although it is almost exactly that. In typical McLaren style, he reimagines a bit about how a book following such a regular reading format could really be formative, could actually help.

I don’t know a thing about any of this but I can imagine a book editor or publishing PR person somewhere saying — hey, Brian, why not do a little daily reader, a devotional, a greatest-hits of your many books, arranged for those who only want to dip in a bit each day. And the wheels start spinning and he reads a bit about how learning happens and what really transforms people and what the world needs right now of religious folk. His pitching it as a “quest” is itself sort of cool, eh? That classic title, drawn from a famous book about a third world social experiment years ago  — “we build the road while walking” — says much.

And here’s the point: true spiritual formation leads to what he calls reorientation and activation. It’s not exactly a simple formula of steps one, two, and three — we pray, are changed, and live it out in application — since all of this folds back on itself and we cycle through being and doing, learning and living, living and praying.

But still, given his penchant for experimental education and true transformational faith formation and social movement to better the world, this really is a lively, well thought-out weekly devotional. Can we walk the path — the Jesus Path — together? There are fifty two (plus a few) readings which “offer everything you need to explore what a difference an honest, living, growing faith can make in our world today. It is organized, more or less, around the flow of the church calendar 9so much so that Phyllis Tickle said it was “as startling as it is beautiful.”)

There are excellent reflection questions under the heading of “engage” and there are things for those with children to do as well. Hooray. Get this — you’ll find it useful, I’m sure, and may return to it often…

Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road: Christian Identity in a multi-faith World Brian D. McLaren (Jericho Books) $16.00 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $9.60

I have to admit this is the only Brian McLaren book that I have not read.  It’s not that I’ve not wanted to — I love the title — but just haven’t gotten to it. I’m generally interested in inter-faith conversations and I have a handful that I routinely recommend. This may be his most thorough book, actually. (Well, the new Doom one is very well-researched and deserves significant acclaim.) Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed, could be misunderstood so I’ll take a stab at a quick word about it.

Some are simply so woodenly Christ-centric that they dismiss any effort to find common ground or mutual admiration. This is not a healthy perspective, and we can surely hold to classic Christian doctrine (full of love and loyalty to Jesus) and still be generous to others, even with a capacious orientation to faith; I even know some conservative Reformed scholars who hint at this, not least Richard Mouw in his most recent, succinct work, Divine Generosity: The Scope of Salvation in Reformed Theology.  Anyway, I suspect that those that presume McLaren is on dangerous ground in this question are partially right but mostly are not. Give him a try and see. We can honor our most solid, Biblical convictions and still ask this question.

Others might think that this is sort of a joke, and are so assured of their generous open-mindedness that they hardly need to ask. I would think that those with such universalist tendencies would do well to allow Brian to tutor them into how to proceed. Even if one deeply wants to honor others and their own faith, it is wise to consider how that might work. Just a quick glance through this lively work assures me that this isn’t a cheesy “let’s all just get along” sort of idealism or a simplistic kind of “tolerance.”

So, he does seem to be moving into a profound sort of conversation, a struggle to know how to be at once deeply Christian and utterly gracious, to be true to our own Biblical identity and yet open-hearted and generous. Why did those guys cross the road, anyway? Surely to engage in one of the most important conversations anywhere, anytime. In a world where religious fanatics of all sorts have missiles aimed at each other, maybe this really is a very important book.  Join him, he suggests, and it will be humbling and holy in a sacred space as we seek an authentic encounter and possible missional collaboration. Wow.

Faith After Doubt: Why Your Belief Stopped Working and What to Do About It  Brian D. McLaren (St. Martin’s Essentials) $17.99  // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $10.79

I need not say much about this as it is one of his more recent, and I reviewed it at great length when it first came out in hardcover and then again when it released in this handsome paperback. I will say this: unlike many books about facing doubt — the best are generous and empathic and do not shame those with doubts — are written from a place of solid faith, inviting doubters or those with anguish about the loss of conventional faith to think it through figure it out, a come back to faith. It is reasonable and good and true, and you really don’t want to drift away.

McLaren, I gather, believes this: he remains an outspoken Christian and I am sure he longs for renewal within the church and among those who have left traditional faith communities. But he’s so incredibly honest and so in touch with those whose faith really is nearly gone, that he writes in a way that is less insistent, more open to wherever their conscious leads. He guides people through the steps to consider and reconfigure faith. He uses the same four overarching themes that he used in Naked Faith [see above] — Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony. Questions and doubts are part of this journey, “a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith.”

It is reassuring and healthy, less apologetics and more spiritual direction. There is no other book quite like it.

Do I Stay Christian? A Guide for the Doubters, The Disappointed, and the Disillusioned Brian D. McLaren  (St Martin’s Essentials) $19.00 // OUR 40% OFF SALE PRICE = $11.40

If Brian’s Faith After Doubt is a gentle voice offering a friend to walk along the road towards legitimate questions and healthy doubts — that portal into better questions and halters faith, as he puts it — for those who have doubt, this is for those who for more principled reasons really wonder if they can possibility stay Christian at all. For those who are not just doubting but deconstructing, for those who have moved from doubt to disappointment and disillusionment.

One gentle reader I met thought he was just too candid and insistent in the first half about all the problems with the church and bad faith. It is an argument for why it may be reasonable (perhaps even necessary) to leave the Christian faith behind. I resonated with her painful critique but I reminded this lovely church lady that the book was not for her. It was for those — perhaps her grandchildren! — who know well that the church is screwed up and that many formulations of faith have been harmful, even toxic. They need a Christian leader to own up to it, to admit that it isn’t a bad thing to be so revolted with bad faith as to want to leave Christianity altogether. He is building a bridge and honestly reaching those who may have never imagined a Christian writer devoting 10 chapters (almost 100 pages) offering reasons why the faith may deserve a big, old, “No.”

The next 100 pages offer, in counterpoint, 10 reasons why Christianity is worthy and why it should be seriously considered, the “Yes” part of the book. He is not coy or insincere. He’s doing his best to offer 10 reasons to say no and 10 reasons to say yes to faith.  The third portion, 8 chapters, are under the heading of “How.” These are practical guidelines for those making this big choice, inviting them to wise, human, decent, habits of the heart. Maybe you’d advise other things, but this is a whole lot to chew on, good for somewhat you love, I am sure.

+++

TO PLACE AN ORDER 

PLEASE READ, THEN SCROLL DOWN TO CLICK ON THE “ORDER” LINK BELOW.

It is helpful if you tell us how you want us to ship your orders. We’re eager to serve you in a way that you prefer. Let us know your hopes. We’re not automated, so let’s talk!

Of course the weight and destination of your particular package varies but you can use this as a quick, general guide:

There are generally two kinds of US Mail options and, of course, UPS.  If necessary, we can do overnight and other expedited methods, too. Just ask.

• United States Postal Service has an option called “Media Mail” which is cheapest but can be a little slower. For one typical book, usually, it’s $4.83; 2 lbs would be $5.58. This is the cheapest method available and sometimes is quicker than UPS, but not always.
• United States Postal Service has another, quicker option called “Priority Mail” which is $9.00, if it fits in a flat-rate envelope. Many children’s books and some Bibles are oversized so that might take the next size up which is $9.80. “Priority Mail” gets more attention than does “Media Mail” and is often just a few days to anywhere in the US.
• UPS Ground is reliable but varies by weight and distance and may even take longer than USPS. Sometimes they are cheaper than Priority. We’re happy to figure out your options for you once we know what you want.

If you just want to say “cheapest” that is fine. If you are eager and don’t want the slowest method, do say so. It really helps us serve you well so let us know. Keep in mind the possibility of holiday supply chain issues and slower delivery… still, we’re excited to serve you.

BookNotes

SPECIAL
DISCOUNT

40% OFF

limited time offer