By John B. Olson | B&H Fiction | softcover | 400 pages | $14.99

John B. Olson delivers a supernatural thriller in Powers. Though it is a sequel to his novel Shade, it is a self-contained story.

Powers begins with Mariutza, who was raised in a Louisiana swamp by her grandfather, Purodad. He has trained her to be one of the Standing, a group to which God gives extrasensory powers against the Badness, Satan's human presence.

Fox Home Entertainment | $99.98

The Hallmark Channel movie adaptations of Janette Oke's best-selling book series Love Comes Softly are now available in one complete DVD set. Follow the story of Clark and Marty Davis and their family as they face hardships, tragedy, love and triumph.

There are some deaths which, upon occurrence, arrest the considerations of the public at large. There is something—be it the public visibility of the individual or the curiously unusual or wholly universal circumstances surrounding the death—that coerces our attention and empathy.

For me, the first recognition of this phenomenon was while sitting at the bar with my wife at the Red Lobster in Waco, Texas. We were waiting on a table. It was September 1, 1997. The televisions scattered around us announced that an English princess had died. Our collective grief ignited; a planet wept. I cried right along. Sitting there with cheese sticks and a Dr Pepper, I cried for a princess I didn't even know.

Alcon Entertainment | Starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Quinton Aaron | Rated PG-13

The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw, is undeniably inspirational. But Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, the Christian couple at the center of the film, hope the story of how they adopted a homeless black teenager who eventually became a first-round NFL draft pick does more than make people cry.