August 6 is earmarked by the Church to remember the Transfiguration of Jesus – each of the gospels records the event. For me Mark’s narrative captures, in Peter’s response, the way I’d surely feel in any ‘situation extremus’ when confronted by divine glory or my own human frailty.

History’s shadows will never find rest / Until the wanderer finds love and care

J.D. Vance’s memoir was extolled as bringing enlightenment to ignorant elites who no longer understood white working-class America, providing an explanation for how Trump won over the resentful victims of decades of growing inequality. In the subversive interpretation of Howard’s film version, Hillbilly Elegy is a timely elegy for American democracy.

For young and mature Christians alike, Siu Fung draws on Christ, Paul’s and his own experience, offering a rich blend of suffering and sustainable spirituality for the long haul. But he also draws on the global experience of suffering Christians in poverty and persecution as a great encouragement to western readers.

Snowflakes tickle the tops of the trees, / Snow-kissed, sun missed, blanketed in the frigid snow.

Eve’s Return is an in-depth, comprehensive, at times challenging, but deeply invitational reflection on how we live together in community. Andrea leaves more than enough imaginative room to draw out the parallels and disconnections to our own reality.

God must have had such fun making you! / With layers of heart in your fingertips / Everything you touch, stitched / With your care and courage.

The idea of getting something for nothing goes against the grain of human nature. Baird’s book shows us how grace lights our daily lives as much as the Sun starts our days and the Moon signifies our nights.

In our visual learning culture, catechesis is an increasingly strange and foreign idea; its slow and oral work runs deeply counter to the spirit of our times. Charles Ringma’s pocket catechism seeks to re-centre our minds on deep and time-tested Christian truths.

Be careful what you sing.