Archive for the ‘*Brief Reviews*’ Category

Erin McGraw – Better Food for a Better World: A Novel [Review]

Friday, May 31st, 2013

Erin McGrawRight Through the Tangle

A Review of

Better Food for a Better World: A Novel
Erin McGraw

Hardback: Slant, 2013.
Buy now:  [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Mary Bowling

 

In Erin McGraw’s novel, Better Food for a Better World, three couples of Californian thirtysomethings who have known each other since college decide to partner up and change the world for the better through ice cream.  Natural High: Better Food for a Better World is the name of the shop the six friends take turns running and managing, all while waiting to see the betterment happen around them and in their own lives. Nancy is the originator of the idea and dominant partner who, along with her husband, cows the others into acquiescence. Cecilia and David are a meticulous and meek wannabe musician and agriculturalist, and Vivy and Sam are free-spirited ex-promoters of offbeat talent. While day in and day out Nancy recites the supposedly inspirational mantras of Natural High, the others quietly simmer as they wrestle with  the lives they have given up in order to sell ice cream.

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Becca Stevens – Snake Oil [Review]

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Becca StevensHealing of all Sorts.

A Review of

Snake Oil: The Art of Healing and Truth-Telling.
Becca Stevens

Hardback: Jericho Books, 2013
Buy now:  [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Emily Sutterfield
 

If you feel overwhelmed by the violence of today, disconnected from creation, and disheartened by the inequalities in society, Snake Oil will heal your heart and rebirth a much-needed  hope inside.
 

When I first picked up Snake Oil, I thought it was going to be just another book about some do-gooder starting a non-profit.  I was wrong.  This is a book that pulls apart the layers of the story of a priest starting a program for abused women.  Each layer unfolds in a beautiful way.  Organic.  Heartbreaking.  Hopeful.
 

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Gary Holthaus – Learning Native Wisdom [Review]

Friday, May 3rd, 2013

Gary HolthausThe Deep, Intensive Surgery Required

Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality
Gary Holthaus

Culture of the Land Series.
Paperback: University Press of KY, 2013
(New Paperback Edition)
Buy now:  [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Scot Martin

The pharmaceutical industry has made us good at treating symptoms, and once the pain has been ameliorated we tend to move on, ignoring the sickly roots that first caused the symptoms.  “The most important task in our time is not to protect the land or create social justice but to create a sustainable culture,” asserts Gary Holthaus against that kind of symptom-treating-only thinking in Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality” (6).

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Margaret Feinberg – Wonderstruck [Review]

Friday, April 26th, 2013

Margaret FeinbergLearning to Find Joy in Each Day

A Review of  

Wonderstruck: Awaken to the Nearness of God
Margaret Feinberg

Paperback: Worthy Publishing, 2013
Buy now:  [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Kimberly Roth

 

Margaret Feinberg is one of those authors who walk with one foot in the evangelical world and one foot in the mystical. Or, perhaps a better way to say it is this: she walks the evangelical path in a mystic’s shoes. Either way, there may be those who find themselves uncomfortable on her journeys – either because she’s too “out-there” or because she’s too “in-your-face” (depending on your personal bent, of course).

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Margie Haack – The Exact Place [ Review ]

Friday, April 26th, 2013

Margie HaackA God who Loves and Treasures

A Review of

The Exact Place: A Memoir
Margie Haack

Paperback: Kalos Press, 2012.
Buy now:  [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by MaryAnn McKibben Dana

Margie Haack’s memoir is aptly named. Her descriptions of the rural Minnesota in which she grew up is so painstakingly rendered that one might consider the landscape a character in itself. It is a place that entertains and nurtures; it is also a place that startles and admonishes.

 

Haack’s memoir tells the story of her growing up years in a cramped house full of siblings, a mother who was widowed young, and a stepfather who withheld the unconditional love that young Margie so craved. The fact of this withholding is delivered with all the matter-of-factness of a child—this is the world as it is; there’s no changing it—which gives her attempts to earn his love (and her despair when she displeases him) an added poignancy.

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Enticed by Eden – Schearing and Ziegler [Review]

Friday, April 5th, 2013

Enticed by EdenA Panoply of Human Error

A Review of

Enticed by Eden: How Western Culture Uses, Confuses (and Sometimes Abuses) Adam and Eve
Linda S. Schearing and Valarie H. Ziegler

Paperback: Baylor UP, 2013
Buy now:   [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Liz Windhorst Harmer

 

We all know the story: the first man formed out of dust, the first woman formed from his rib, the garden full of good things, the one tree they are forbidden to eat from. The inevitability of a fall. What seems like a small act—Eve accepting the serpent’s lies—has eternal ramifications.
 
As Linda S. Schearing and Valarie H. Ziegler, both professors of Religious Studies, rightly point out, Adam and Eve are still with us. Their book, Enticed by Eden: How Western Culture Uses, Confuses, (and Sometimes Abuses) Adam and Eve, travels far and wide to find the places in our culture where Adam and Eve are made heavy with meaning, from evangelical movements promoting the submission of women to men, to internet discussion boards for practitioners of “Christian Domestic Discipline” (wife-spankers), to the jokes and advertisements that use and often subvert the Genesis story. Everywhere you find Adam and Eve you also find gender stereotypes, ideas about sex, and ideas about the nature of sin.

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Mary DeTurris Poust: Cravings [Brief Review]

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

</b><b>Mary DeTurris Poust</b>What are We Hungry For?

 A Brief Review of

Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God
Mary DeTurris Poust

Paperback: Ave Maria Press, 2012
Buy now:  [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Sarah Winfrey

 

Food. For many of us it’s simultaneously a source of sustenance and one of frustration, of joy and consternation. So many of us have known the power that food can hold, how enjoying food can cross over into hating it and yet we continue to overeat anyway. We’ve experienced how we can use food to try and fill empty places inside of us that are not our bellies, and how we feel afterwards.

 

As we try to develop healthier attitudes about food, we become more aware of the origins of the food we’re putting into our bodies, we learn about whole foods and organic ones, clean foods, dirty ones, and the evils of high fructose corn syrup. The more we learn, though, the harder it becomes to actually eat, to consume foods that we love without worrying about whether we’ve made the best choice and, honestly, whether we can afford the best choice.

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The Mystery of God – Boyer / Hall [Review]

Friday, March 29th, 2013

Why does God, who truly wants to be known,
seem so incomprehensible?

The Mystery of God A Review of

The Mystery of God— Theology for Knowing the Unknowable
Steven D. Boyer and Christopher A. Hall

Paperback: Baker Academic, 2012.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]  [ Kindle ]

Reviewed by Chris Sicks

 

When I was an atheist, I thought the reason God was unknowable was because he didn’t exist. Today I not only believe he exists—I preach, teach, and write about him. Still, much about God remains mysterious, even unknowable.

 

Why does God, who truly wants to be known, seem so incomprehensible?
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Mary DeMuth – Everything [Brief Review]

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Mary DeMuthThe Appealing Prospect of Giving Everything to Christ

A Brief Review of

Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus

Mary DeMuth

Paperback: Thomas Nelson, 2012.
Buy now: [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]

 

Reviewed By Gina Dalfonzo

 

Many of Mary DeMuth’s books have been easy to categorize: novel, young adult fiction, memoir, self-help. Her newest book, Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus, is not quite so easily pigeonholed.

 

As its title suggests, Everything’s themes are wide-ranging and comprehensive. Is it a guide to Christian growth? Another self-help book? A spiritual autobiography in the vein of C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy or Karen Swallow Prior’s more recent Booked?

 

In truth, it’s all of the above, and more.

 

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I Lay My Stitches Down – Cynthia Grady/Michele Wood [Review]

Friday, March 8th, 2013

I lay my stitches downA thoughtful, textured, and sophisticated treatment of American slavery

A Review of

I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery,

By Cynthia Grady

Illustrated by Michele Wood

Hardback: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2012
Buy now: [ Amazon ]

 

Reviewed by Susan R. Adams.

 

In early February, the Butler University community was privileged to meet and hear local Indianapolis artist and author, Michele Wood, speak about her collaboration with writer, Cynthia Grady, in the beautiful poetry book, I Lay My Stitches Down. Michele Wood’s earlier publications have earned prestigious awards, including the American Book Award for Going Back Home and the Coretta Scott King Award for I See the Rhythm. (To learn more about Michele Wood and to see examples of her work, please visit her website.) I feel so fortunate to have the privilege of hearing Michele Wood speak and watching her move through the book page by page, generously explaining her approach as the illustrator for each of Cynthia Grady’s poems.

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