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You're familiar with the genre: A secular Jew follows Old Testament laws for one year. A Brown University student spends a semester at Jerry Falwell's college. Now Ed Dobson, a pastor in evangelical Grand Rapids, seeks to live like Jesus—not the bridge-crossing endeavor we generally encounter in such books. In the end, though, it's not the lengths to which Dobson goes that make his book noteworthy; it's how little he must do to expose the shallow self-centeredness of much of our everyday faith.

Chris Armstrong's biographical collection ignores the usual suspects—the likes of Augustine, Aquinas, and Bonaventure are nowhere to be found. Nor is his a white-dudes-only club. Instead, Armstrong profiles some oft-overlooked saints, including several women, and reminds us in a postmodern-friendly fashion that all history is biography, and that the past is more unpredictable, complicated, and instructive than the way it is often presented.

Jim Belcher is a Presbyterian Church in America pastor. He also was emerging before it was called emerging. That makes him part of a very small tribe, so small that he's probably the only member. Yet his insights into church life are broadly useful, and the balance he strikes between tradition and mission, certainty and creativity, could provide a way forward for many.
—Books reviewed by Madison Trammel

In this true coming-of-age story about nba superstar LeBron James's teen years in Akron, Ohio, we see his team go through various ups and downs. Their tight friendships are tested through thick and thin—especially as James's celebrity status explodes in his senior season. But behind it all, coach Dru Joyce, a Christian, shapes and molds these boys, teaching them about prayer, leadership, perseverance, and integrity.—Mark Moring

The last time a Cormac McCarthy novel was adapted to film—with No Country for Old Men—it won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Now comes The Road, which earned McCarthy a Pulitzer Prize. The post-apocalyptic tale depicts a father (Viggo Mortensen) and son desperately seeking hope and life on their journey across a desolate landscape. The boy believes there is still goodness in the world; the father isn't so convinced. It's a story of love and sacrifice in a dark and lonely world.—Mark Moring

Rachel Sparks was just a "normal" girl from Indiana when she heard about Thailand's child sex trade. She ended up forming an organization and making a documentary by the same name, The Sold Project, which includes short pieces about the problem and how viewers can help. The highlight is a 12-minute feature of a bright, beautiful Thai girl named Cat—and how the Sold Project stepped in to help when she was most at risk, likely preventing an ugly future. (More: TheSoldProject.com)—Mark Moring

In the summer of 2006, Lee Isaac Chung went to Rwanda as a volunteer with Youth With a Mission, and decided that his best gift to Rwanda's youth would be helping them use art to work through the trauma of the 1994 genocide. Chung taught filmmaking, allowing the students to tell their own stories in a documentary that ended up at many top festivals. Variety's Robert Koehler described it as "the finest and truest film yet on the moral and emotional repercussions of the genocide that wracked Rwanda."—Brett McCracken

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October 2009, Vol. 53, No. 10