Due to arrive in Books Plus Gloucester next week, preorder God’s Great Dance Floor for just £8.99 (RRP £12.99) by telephoning 0300 422 8585 or emailing gloucester@books-plus.org.uk.

Having written many of the church’s best-loved songs – including I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, Majesty and Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble? – Martin Smith remains rooted in the local church and is back with fresh new sounds.

Martin instinctively calls out for people to become a ‘voice’ for those who do not have a voice. For Martin Smith, endings aren’t all they seem. In 2009 he came to the closing stages of a two-decade career spent holding the microphone and cheering on the crowds with the genre-defining band Delirious.

With Dove awards, Grammy nominations and RIAA certified gold selling status behind him, it was an incredible journey. Today, what lies ahead is bold, fresh and exciting. Like we said: endings aren’t all they seem.

The story of Jimmy Mizen who died aged 16 in an unprovoked attack in 2008 is told by his mother Margaret in Jimmy A Legacy Of Peace.

This is a story of devastating loss and an astonishing capacity for hope and peace.

The morning after his 16th birthday Jimmy Mizen, a popular lad and gentle giant at 6’4, went out to buy his first lottery ticket. A few minutes later, he was dead. Fatally wounded in an unprovoked assault in the local bakery, Jimmy bled to death in his brother’s arms as horrified friends and family gathered. This book, written by his parents, Margaret and Barry Mizen, tells the story of Jimmy’s death and the devastating effect on their large family. It also describes how this ordinary couple from an ordinary family embarked on a very extraordinary journey. Over three short years, the Mizens have made astonishing achievements in their son’s memory: through the Jimmy Mizen Foundation, the City Safe Havens scheme and Families United, they have embraced a powerful vocation, as peace ambassadors to broken communities.

Jimmy is available for £6.99 in Books Plus Gloucester.

Andrew White’s new book – Father, Forgive – is available at just £6.99 in Books Plus Gloucester (RRP is £8.99).

For most of his ministry Canon Andrew White has been involved in reconciliation. In The Vicar of Baghdad he wrote, ‘The kind of people I spend my time engaging with are not usually very nice. On the whole, nice people do not cause wars.’ Until he left for Baghdad in 2005 Andrew was Director of the International Centre for Reconciliation in Coventry. The ICR is the centre of a network of over 250 ‘Cross of Nails’ centres around the world, particularly in the USA and Germany, which serve the cause of reconciliation. Andrew bases his chapters around the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation. Following the bombing of the mediaeval cathedral in 1940, the words ‘Father Forgive’ were inscribed behind the altar of the ruined building. The Litany concludes: ‘Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ.’

Spring Harvest 2013 – Just in and available on special offer in Books Plus Gloucester:

The Source: 22 New Songs For The Church (2 x CDs) – £11.99 (save £3 on RRP £14.99)

Spring Harvest Praise 2013 (Songbook) – £11.99 save £5 on (RRP £16.99)

Kids Praise Party DVD – £8.99 (save £1 on RRP£9.99)

Spring Harvest Presents The Big Start 2 (CD) – £8.99 (save £1 on RRP £9.99)

The Rebel’s Guide To: The Good News DVD – £11.99 (save £3 on RRP £14.99)

1 John Workbook (Bible Study) – £2.99 (save £1 on RRP £3.99)

DOWNTURN by Mike Burke

If you enjoyed Daydream Believer by Mike Burke perhaps you might want to try his recently published second novel – Downturn.

Set in modern times its based on the Book of Job and explores what happens when bad things happen to good people.

Mike is a cleryman in the Church of England having previously worked in parishes in Sheffield and Gloucester.  He is married to Jacky and has two grown up children.

Jeff Lucas turns his hallmark wit and candour on ten myths that hinder our prayer life. Describing his book as an ‘alternative prayer manual’, Jeff offers a wealth of practical suggestions to help Christians of all ages and stages to develop a stronger one-on-one relationship with the Almighty. He is open about his own struggles in this area, and writes with clarity and compassion about an aspect of the life of faith that many of us find difficult. First published in 2003, this book is now thoroughly revised and updated. Jeff says: ‘The core message is the same, but ten years on I am writing from a different part of the wood. I am not sure I am wiser, but I am certainly more experienced – and continue to believe that if we get our prayer habits right, the rest of life is more likely to fall into place.’

If you liked The Shack why not try the latest novel by its author William Paul Young.

There’s £5 off the RRP in Books Plus Gloucester at just £12.99 a copy (RRP £17.99).

Multi-millionaire Anthony Spencer is trapped in a coma and finds himself in a surreal world that reflects the skewed priorities of the life he’s lived on earth where he meets a stranger who turns out to be Jesus and a grandmother who is the Holy Spirit.

Pleading for a second chance, he is sent back to earth to redeem himself. There he must fight to put right the mess he’s created, experiencing events through others’ eyes before deciding how to use the miraculous gift he’s been given. Before his illness he had set events in motion that he now needs to undo – but will he have the courage to make the right choice?