Seven Things That Steal Your Joy: Overcoming the Obstacles to Your Happiness by Joyce Meyer

Meyer, host of the television show Life in the Word and author of a multitude of Christian books, presents a good survey of biblical texts referring to the central place of joy in the believer's life, but her conclusions from those verses do little more than restate the obvious. She gives advice to combat various "Joy Stealers" such as religious legalism, excessive reasoning, ungodly anger and envy, but her directives can be oversimplified: "Arm yourself with the kind of thinking that says, I would rather suffer than fail to please God. If you surrender to Him, you will never again intentionally disobey God." The book's language often slips into a very heavily Christian subculture accent: "I'll tell you what I'm believing for this year, Mom. I'm believing to walk in love with every person I come in contact with." Despite these drawbacks-and the fact that Meyer has already tackled many of these topics in her earlier titles-her basic, straightforward discussion will appeal to many readers, walking them through some valuable self-examination. The desire most people have for more joy, coupled with Meyer's growing name recognition, will make this a popular book. (Apr. 6) Forecast: Joyce Meyer has sold more than six million copies of her books to date, more than 1.2 million of them in the last year alone. She currently dominates the CBA Charismatic bestseller list, with four of the top five titles.