THIS month, Powerbooks Specialty Store picks Joel Osteen as its Author of the Month. The Smiling Preacher’s first nonfiction book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential, was released in 2004 and offers exceptional insight and encouragement on how a person can take advantage of the best creative possibilities that life has to offer. The same literary work propelled him to be picked as one of Barbara Walter’s 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006.

Osteen was born in 1963 in Houston, Texas, to a former Baptist pastor who founded Lakewood Church on Mother’s Day in 1959. Osteen took over his father’s ministry when the latter died in 1999. Presently, Osteen and several Lakewood Church team members travel across the United States presenting programs in large stadiums to a paying public. In 2007 the tour expanded to include stops in several other countries, including Canada, England, Northern Ireland and Israel.

During the same year, Osteen released his second book, Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day, which topped the New York Times bestsellers list. He was also invited to appear on Larry King Live, where he discussed his book and its focus on people’s relationships, and being able to constantly develop one’s own life.

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When the Great Becomes Divine

TO understand the current work of Cary Santiago, one must comprehend those of his kindred brethren: Azzedine Alaia, who painstakingly studied Madeleine Vionnet (mistress of the bias cut), who immensely influenced Madame Gres (with whom Santiago seems to share the same feel for material and movement).

A peek into the mind of Joel Lamangan

Professionalism.

If there’s a very important virtue that young artistas of today continue to learn from 53-year-old director Joel Lamangan, it’s that “P” word, which seems to elude many other aspiring actors and a few veterans as well. For them, it means arriving on the set on time with their lines already committed to memory.

Gab Fab: So much for Marjorie Barretto’s constituents

WHAT would I do with P250,000?

Well, I can buy a secondhand van and convert it into a school bus. Or have a certain part of our house fixed (I live in the house where I grew up, and some parts of it are already worn and torn).

Ugly Betty’s Michael Urie gets personal

MICHAEL URIE’S portrayal of Marc St. James, Vanessa Williams’s conniving, sarcastic and flamboyant assistant on Ugly Betty, has fans tuning in every week to follow his sassy repartee and wicked shenanigans.

Spotlight on nonfiction author Joel Osteen

THIS month, Powerbooks Specialty Store picks Joel Osteen as its Author of the Month. The Smiling Preacher’s first nonfiction book, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential,