What He’s Really Thinking by Paula Rinehart offers thoughtful and spiritually rich teachings on women, men and their relationships. While the title claims the book to be a how-to guide on becoming a relational genius with men, Rinehart’s larger point is that all relationships are opportunities to experience deeper intimacy with God.

In Breathe, the first book in Bergren's “The Homeward Trilogy," publisher Clarence St. Clair sends his son Dominic and two daughters on a train from Philadelphia to Colorado in order to find a better life.

Things Left Unspoken

Eva Marie Everson

Revell (Baker Publishing Group)

softcover, 384 pages, $13.99

978-0-800-73273-8

Raised in the South, Everson recalls well its charm as well as its segregated past in Things Left Unspoken. Written in the voice of Jo-Lynn Hunter, the book begins with the funeral of her Great-Uncle Jim, in Cottonwood, Ga.

Angel Train

Gilbert Morris

B&H Books (B&H Publishing Group)

softcover, 336 pages, $14.99

978-0-805-44729-3

Angel Train tells the story of Charity Morgan, who lives with her father and sisters in a small Pennsylvania coal-mining town in the mid-1800s. Here, she and her family are part of a religious group called the Pilgrim Way, a very simplistic and Puritan-type people who are very committed to God and to one another.

Hometown: Flower Mound, Texas

Currently reading: Panic!: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity by Michael Lewis

How does your book for church staff differ from writing for business audiences? “The first part of the book is similar to business books. I speak about three primary things—preparation, confidence and engagement. Those are three really strong components of a good presentation. Then I picked nine common scenarios that Christians would find themselves in, like sharing your testimony, teaching a Sunday school class, holding a small group or greeting someone when they walk into a church. We overlaid into some of those stories and examples so the book could be used as a reference, not just a read-through. When you find yourself in that situation, you could go back to the book—that’s what makes the book different.”

A songwriter and one of the founding members of Desperation Band, based out of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., Packiam urges readers to a passionate pursuit of a personal relationship with Jesus.