Health Care You Can Live With:
Discover Wholeness in Body and Spirit

Scott Morris, M.D.

"Health care is a mess," writes Dr. Morris, "and the church can help make changes by reclaiming the biblical mandate to bring healing." Dr. Morris, a family practice physician and ordained Methodist minister, founded the Church Health Center in Memphis, TN, in 1987 to provide quality, affordable health care for working people and their families who are without health insurance.

The Church Health Center's focus is on prevention and health education instructing patients in both spiritual and physical fitness, good nutrition, regular exercise, and cultivating a sense of humor. And their patients' health improves!

Supported by the interfaith community in Memphis, the concept has spread to 25 other cities, which are modeling clinics after the Memphis center.

This magnificent book will be helpful to a lot of laypeople, but it should also be in the libraries of physicians, nurses, chaplains, pastors, and counselors. Dr. Morris has pointed churches in the direction they should go if they mean to be relevant in an ailing world.

2471 (Hardcover) — $19.95 

The Blue Zones
Lessons For Living Longer From
The People Who've Lived The Longest

Dan Buettner

This extraordinary book, published by National Geographic, should be in every church and seminary library in the nation. Buettner led an expedition of medical scientists to four areas with some of the world's longest-lived people from different cultures, and studied their lifestyles, attitudes, diet, and physical activity.

This book is, essentially, a scientific-medical confirmation of some of the themes that The Joyful Noiseletter has been strumming for 25 years: the health and longevity benefits of faith, good humor, laughter, good nutrition, daily exercise, and siestas.

4005 (Paperback) — $14.95 

Laughter Was God's Idea:
Stories about Healing Humor

Chaplain Jack Hinson

A discouraged and despairing Protestant chaplain tells how he turned around his ministry and delivered a joyful, cheerful spirit with lots of humor to patients and staff at a North Carolina hospital for 14 years.

"Chaplain Jack" has written an amazing story about the close cooperation between a joyful, witty chaplain and the medical doctors and nurses at the hospital.

"After 14 years of dosing out daily spoonfuls of healing humor to patients, loved ones, and members of the hospital staff, I'm convinced that laughter is still the best medicine," Hinson writes. "Good humor is our ally in the healing process."

9930 (Paperback) — $11.95 

Just Play Ball

Joe Garagiola

Joe Garagiola's new book, Just Play Ball, is probably the funniest book ever written about baseball. Starting with a forward by Joe's lifelong friend Yogi Berra, the book serves up hilarious anecdotes, stories, and one-liners from Joe's many years as a Major League catcher and Hall of Fame sportscaster.

The book is a fresh look at what's right with Major League baseball. Joe's keen sense of humor resonates with both young and old; it's a humor that springs from the love of the game and the players.

"I wrote the book," Joe said, "because I got tired of reading about steroids, human growth hormones, drugs, and the rest. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I've never seen a game I didn't like."

9521 (Paperback) — $14.95 

The Funny Side of Tennis

Cal Samra

There are 24.7 million tennis players in the United States. If you are one of them, you are likely to see yourself and your tennis friends in this hilarious book of tennis cartoons, anecdotes, and witty quotes. If you're not one of them, this book is the perfect gift to cheer up a tennis player who needs some laughs.

Cal Samra, editor of The Joyful Noiseletter and a tennis enthusiast, put together this book, which features the tennis cartoons of 11 cartoonists, including Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, and Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. Many of the cartoonists contribute regularly to JN.

But that's not all. This book is also about the health benefits of tennis played with good humor. "Laughter is good medicine," says Dr. Ellen Rome, a Cleveland Clinic physician who is a tennis player herself, "and if tennis is played for fun and with good humor, the health benefits are even greater."

Here's more proof that vigorous exercise and humor are powerful weapons in the never-ending battle against obesity and depression.

You'll read about the longevity of many tennis players, humorists, and comedians. And you'll be inspired by stories of tennis aficionados who play competitive amateur tennis into their 80's and 90's.

And you'll be introduced to Samra's Law: The older tennis players get, the funnier they get.

"Cal Samra has collected a treasury of cartoons, anecdotes, and witty quotes that will bring a chuckle from even the non-tennis player. The book is an easy, feel-good read that definitely captures the funny side of tennis."
	--	Pam Shebest
		Tennis reporter The Kalamazoo Gazette
"A former AP reporter and editor of an award-winning humor newsletter, Samra takes a look at the lighter side of tennis with the works of 11 different cartoonists, and interweaves anecdotes and quotes that will leave you chuckling."
	--	Inside Tennis magazine

3029 (Paperback) — $8.95 

Do Vegetarians Eat Animal Crackers?
And Other Questions You Might Not Think to Ask

Robert Bimler

Here's a collection of over 1,000 amusing, zany, and thought-provoking questions you might not think to ask. It also makes a great gift for a teacher who wants to tickle and humor students. They'll leave you chuckling. Samples: Is it true that if you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed? If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes? Why is a person who invests all your money called a broker? Where do the Joneses live and why should we keep up with them? Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

2069 (Paperback) — $9.95 

Holy Humor and More Holy Humor

Cal and Rose Samra

The contributors to Holy Humor and More Holy Humor have been called "the world's funniest Christians." These two rib-tickling treasuries of Christian joy and humor — from the first 10 years of The Joyful Noiseletter — together have sold more than a half-million copies.

Each book features about 100 cartoons by 16 gifted cartoonists, including Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, and Johnny Hart, creator of B.C., and an avalanche of healing humor, knee-slapping jokes, clean limericks, bulletin bloopers, and "jestimonials." Conveniently arranged by topic or month for easy use, both books are also fully indexed.

2791 Holy Humor — $11.95 

2805 More Holy Humor — $11.95 

Holy Hilarity and More Holy Hilarity

Cal and Rose Samra
Editors, The Joyful  Noiseletter

Two new collections of favorite jokes, inspirational humor, and cartoons from The Joyful Noiseletter. Here are the hilarious sequels to the best-selling books, Holy Humor and More Holy Humor, effectively disproving any notion that Christians are relentlessly dour, melancholy, humorless, and joyless.

These new books are packed with more side-splitting clean jokes, uplifting stories, one-liners, bulletin bloopers, out-of-the-mouths-of-God's-kids, joyful Scriptural references, and priceless cartoons. Both books are fully indexed for quick reference for pastors, public speakers, teachers, and health professionals.

2813 Holy Hilarity — $11.95 

2821 More Holy Hilarity — $11.95 

Mirth for the Millenium

Cal and Rose Samra

Here’s a great stocking-stuffer – a 5 x 5 gift book featuring a collection of millennium humor and cartoons. The best over-the-counter remedy for the blues or burnout.

283X — $6.95 

The Laughter Prescription

Cal and Rose Samra

No matter what type of ailment a person suffers from, one treatment never fails to improve mood and overall condition: laughter, taken at regular intervals, day and night. Another delightful stocking stuffer.

2864 — $6.95