The Color of Compromise
In August of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, calling on all Americans to view others not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Yet King included another powerful word, one that is often overlooked. Warning against the “tranquilizing drug of gradualism,” King emphasized the fierce urgency of now, the need to resist the status quo and take immediate action.
King’s call to action, first issued over fifty years ago, is relevant for the church in America today. Churches remain racially segregated and are largely ineffective in addressing complex racial challenges. In The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby takes us back to the root of this injustice in the American church, highlighting the cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about progress between black and white people.
Tisby provides a unique survey of American Christianity’s racial past, revealing the concrete and chilling ways people of faith have worked against racial justice. Understanding our racial history sets the stage for solutions, but until we understand the depth of the malady we won’t fully embrace the aggressive treatment it requires. Given the centuries of Christian compromise with bigotry, believers today must be prepared to tear down old structures and build up new ones. This book provides an in-depth diagnosis for a racially divided American church and suggests ways to foster a more equitable and inclusive environment among God’s people.
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This overview of racism in the American Protestant church starts out slow, but it picks up a lot of steam as it moves into the 20th and 21st centuries, tracing how white Christians have made choices that continue to harm Black people. This is a must read for those who consider themselves Christian, or those who want to start to understand the ways that white supremacy and Christianity have worked hand in hand for centuries.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Rage Becomes Her
Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.
Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help” and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.
We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Rage Becomes Her makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.
Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.
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I would love to make everyone read this book, especially those who were raised or socialized as women. It truly changed my life by changing my perspective on anger, showing how it can be a tool if we use it rather than suppressing it, as many of us were socialized to do.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
My Urohs
The first collection of poetry by a Pohnpeian poet, Emelihter Kihleng’s My Urohs is described by distinguished Samoan writer and artist Albert Wendt as “refreshingly innovative and compelling, a new way of seeing ourselves in our islands, an important and influential addition to our [Pacific] literature.”
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This book of poetry focuses on the Micronesian experience, both in and out of the island nations. It’s sad, powerful, joyful, and more, although poetry really isn’t my thing. If you are into poetry, you may want to pick up this collection written by and about a culture that is underrepresented in American literature.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
We Served the People
A collection of moving stories passed from mother to daughter recounting life during China’s Cultural Revolution.
In China, an entire generation’s most formative years took place in remote rural areas when city-kids were sent to the countryside to become rusticated youth and partake in Mao’s mandated Great Leap Forward.
Debut cartoonist Emei Burell breathes new life into the stories her mother shared with her of growing up during mid-1960s Communist China. In an inspiring tale, her mother recounts how she ended up as one of the few truck-driving women during the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside movement, which sought to increase agricultural outreach and spur social and ideological change amongst youth.
Burell’s stunning illustrations honor her mother’s courage, strength, and determination during a decade of tremendous political upheaval, where millions of lives were lost, and introduces us to a young Burell in a new era of self-discovery.
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The author of this graphic memoir interviews her mother about her experiences as a rusticated youth in the Cultural Revolution, and how she went from driving tractors to going to TV University to learning English. It was fascinating–I’m sadly underinformed about this time period in Chinese history, and I enjoyed learning more through this moving book.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Lies My Teacher Told Me
James W. Loewen, a sociology professor and distinguished critic of history education, puts 12 popular textbooks under the microscope-and what he discovers will surprise you. In his opinion, every one of these texts fails to make its subject interesting or memorable. Worse still is the proliferation of blind patriotism, mindless optimism and misinformation filling the pages.
From the truth about Christopher Columbus to the harsh reality of the Vietnam War, Loewen picks apart the lies we’ve been told. This audiobook, narrated by Brian Keeler (The Hurricane, “All My Children”) will forever change your view of the past.
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This is a book that will make you mad even as it teaches you. I became so furious at our American education, which leaves us ignorant at best and misinformed at worst about our own history and how we got to the place we are today. The author has a lot of insight into history textbooks, as he is a historian and a textbook author, and the sections where he talks about how textbooks are adopted in the public school system was the most interesting part to me as a teacher.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Dear White Peacemaker
Dear White Peacemakers is a breakup letter to division, a love letter to God’s beloved community, and an eviction notice to the violent powers that have sustained racism for centuries.
Race is one of the hardest topics to discuss in America. Many white Christians avoid talking about it altogether. But a commitment to peacemaking requires white people to step out of their comfort and privilege and into the work of anti-racism. Dear White Peacemakers is an invitation to white Christians to come to the table and join this hard work and holy calling. Rooted in the life, ministry, and teachings of Jesus, this book is a challenging call to transform white shame, fragility, saviorism, and privilege, in order to work together to build the Beloved Community as anti-racism peacemakers.
Written in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Dear White Peacemakers draws on the Sermon on the Mount, Spirituals, and personal stories from author Osheta Moore’s work as a pastor in St. Paul, Minnesota. Enter into this story of shalom and join in the urgent work of anti-racism peacemaking.
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“We should remember that the work of dismantling racism is not only recognizing, repenting of, and repairing the damage done after four hundred years of oppression of Black and Brown people. Yes to all the above, and this work is a deeply interpersonal one that requires grace, nuance, kindness, and empathy. This is the work of healing a fractured relationship. … Let us agree to be boldly, lovingly honest. Let us be fully human, fully empathic, and fully committed to our collective shalom.”
I highlighted so many quotes from Dear White Peacemakers, but this one really embodies the book for me. Grit and grace are the heart of this book. Osheta does not shy away from describing her experiences with the horrors of racism and white supremacy, but she is generous with White people (I’m capitalizing as Osheta does throughout her book) who are ready to learn—it struck me at first as a radical approach, but Osheta is not being “nice,” but rather showing sacrificial love, grace, and honesty even for those who have hurt her deeply. The stories she tells throughout the book are deeply moving; you can see how much work she has done to get to this place in her faith and her antiracism journey.
Osheta doesn’t offer the usual list of things for White antiracists to do, but instead shows readers a way of approaching antiracism that centers what she calls the Beloved Community and healing the pain that white supremacy and systemic racism continues to inflict on Black Americans. Often, she calls White Peacemakers to sit with Black suffering rather than ignoring it or thinking we know how to fix it.
I’m still absorbing everything that I read in this book. It is powerful, painfully honest yet also incredibly generous. It’s a timely book for all White people, but especially those who consider themselves Christians. I will be thinking about Dear White Peacemakers for a long time to come.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the author. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
The Anthropocene Reviewed
The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet – from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley’s Comet to Penguins of Madagascar – on a five-star scale.
Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene’s reviews have been praised as ‘observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy’, with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
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I started reading this book the day I turned 30. John’s reviews– really, vignettes about what it’s like to be alive–struck me as the perfect way to enter this new decade of my life. From the mundane to the hilarious, from the desperate to the sublime, John talks about his experiences living through the anthropocene era in such an earnest and open hearted way that you might find yourself crying while reading a review of a hot dog stand in Iceland or of googling strangers. Personal and universal at the same time, more than anything else, this is a book about what it is to be human. I’m old enough to remember the genesis of vlogbrothers (though I wasn’t cool enough to have followed them closely back then); I’ve read several of John Green’s YA novels and regularly listen to the podcast Dear Hank and John. Of all John’s work, this strikes me as the truest and most powerful. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five stars.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
Jesus and John Wayne
How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate’s staunchest supporters? These are among the questions acclaimed historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez asks in Jesus and John Wayne, which delves beyond facile headlines to explain how white evangelicals have brought us to our fractured political moment. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Donald Trump in fact represents the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values.
Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism, or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the role of culture in modern American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals may not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical popular culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done.
Trump, in other words, is hardly the first flashy celebrity to capture evangelicals’ hearts and minds, nor is he the first strongman to promise evangelicals protection and power. Indeed, the values and viewpoints at the heart of white evangelicalism today—patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community—are likely to persist long after Trump leaves office.
A much-needed reexamination, Jesus and John Wayne explains why evangelicals have rallied behind the least-Christian president in American history and how they have transformed their faith in the process, with enduring consequences for all of us.
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An important read if you are only slightly aware of evangelical culture, or if you are still entrenched in it. However, I found it mostly consisted of events that I was at least somewhat aware of and trends that I have been studying since college. It wasn’t as groundbreaking as I wanted it to be.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
The Fire Next Time
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.
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It is sad how little has changed since the publication of this book and how applicable a lot of these points still are to our country. I can’t say that I loved reading this collection, as it is very painful, but it was powerful and an important part of American literature and culture.
Rating: Good
In Order to Live
uman rights activist Park, who fled North Korea with her mother in 2007 at age 13 and eventually made it to South Korea two years later after a harrowing ordeal, recognized that in order to be “completely free,” she had to confront the truth of her past. It is an ugly, shameful story of being sold with her mother into slave marriages by Chinese brokers, and although she at first tried to hide the painful details when blending into South Korean society, she realized how her survival story could inspire others. Moreover, her sister had also escaped earlier and had vanished into China for years, prompting the author to go public with her story in the hope of finding her sister.
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A powerful, heartbreaking story about a woman barely younger than I am, about her crushing life in North Korea, her escape into China and the human trafficking that followed, and her eventual movement through Mongolia into South Korea. No matter where she went, Yeonmi met her persecution with resilience and the will to survive. This is a shocking but ultimately hopeful read.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Midnight in Chernobyl
The story of Chernobyl is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, this book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller.
Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its own citizens, but all of humanity. It is a story that has long remained in dispute, clouded from the beginning in secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation.
Midnight In Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of history’s worst nuclear disaster, of human resilience and ingenuity and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will – lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats – remain not just vital but necessary.
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This nonfiction account starts out slow as the book reveals the flaws in Unit Four’s design (which was too sciency and detailed for me), but the book quickly picks up steam. It is horrifying, disturbing, fascinating. The author does a great job of interviewing primary sources and researching recently declassified documents. If you want to know what really happened at Chernobyl, this is a must read.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Now What?
From friendships to Facebook to far-off countries, what do we do when our lives seem mired in conflict? How do we find connection when our differences are constantly on display and even exacerbated by algorithms and echo chambers? How do we build a kinder society?
If you are tired of the anxiety, frustration, and fear that pervade your connections with other people, both online and in real life, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers want you to know one thing–you are not alone. In this book they will help you understand the powerful connections you have with other people on a personal, community-based, national, and even international level. Then they show you how to
– engage your family with a spirit of curiosity
– listen closely to the anxieties and fears of your friends
– explore shared values within your community
– understand your work as a citizen in a diverse country
– hold lightly those things that are beyond your control around the worldThe status quo isn’t working. If you long to be a peacemaker and a positive influence in your spheres, Now What? is your door to a future that is characterized by hope, love, and connection despite our differences.
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I loved how Sarah and Beth shared their own stories and experiences working through political conflict in personal and institutional settings. These tips won’t work in every setting–something that the authors fortunately acknowledge at the end of the book–but they are great ideas for bridging the gap in implementing change in relationships and groups in many cases.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
The Best We Could Do
The Best We Could Do, the debut graphic novel memoir by Thi Bui, is an intimate look at one family’s journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui’s story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent — the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through.
With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. The Best We Could Do brings to life her journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.
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This graphic memoir tells the difficult but fascinating story of a family’s survival before, during, and after the Vietnamese war. I found it very interesting to learn about, and the art is great. I don’t remember many of the details of this story, but I enjoyed reading it.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
The Korean Vegan
Joanne Lee Molinaro has captivated millions of fans with her powerfully moving personal tales of love, family, and food. In her debut cookbook, she shares a collection of her favorite Korean dishes, some traditional and some reimagined, as well as poignant narrative snapshots that have shaped her family history.
As Joanne reveals, she’s often asked, “How can you be vegan and Korean?” Korean cooking is, after all, synonymous with fish sauce and barbecue. And although grilled meat is indeed prevalent in some Korean food, the ingredients that filled out bapsangs on Joanne’s table growing up–doenjang (fermented soybean paste), gochujang (chili sauce), dashima (seaweed), and more–are fully plant-based, unbelievably flavorful, and totally Korean. Some of the recipes come straight from her childhood: Jjajangmyun, the rich Korean-Chinese black bean noodles she ate on birthdays, or the humble Gamja Guk, a potato-and-leek soup her father makes. Some pay homage: Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake is an ode to the two foods that saved her mother’s life after she fled North Korea.
The Korean Vegan Cookbook is a rich portrait of the immigrant experience with life lessons that are universal. It celebrates how deeply food and the ones we love shape our identity.
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This cookbook provides an intense, powerful look at the intimate food memories of the author and her family, combined with updated, fusion, and veganized versions of classic Korean dishes. I really enjoyed the stories and memories here, and the recipes sound delicious.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
The Red Zone
Chloe Caldwell’s period has often felt inconvenient or uncomfortable or even painful, but it’s only once she’s in her thirties, as she’s falling in love with Tony, a musician and single dad, that its effects on her mood start to dominate her life. Spurred by the intensity and seriousness of her new relationship, she soon realizes that her outbursts of anxiety and rage match her hormonal cycle.
Compelled to understand the truth of what’s happening to her every month, Chloe documents attitudes toward menstruation among her peers and family, reads Reddit threads about PMS, goes on antidepressants, goes off antidepressants, goes on antidepressants again, attends a conference called Break the Cycle, and learns about premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD, which helps her name what she’s been going through. For Chloe, healing isn’t just about finding the right diagnosis or a single cure. It means reflecting on other underlying patterns in her life: her feelings about her queer identity and writing persona in the context of a heterosexual relationship; how her parents’ divorce contributed to her issues with trust; and what it means to be a stepmother.
The Red Zone is a funny, intimate, and revelatory memoir for anyone grappling with controversial medical diagnoses and labels of all kinds. It’s about coming to terms with the fact that, along with proper treatment, self-acceptance, self-compassion, and transcending shame are the ultimate keys to relief. It’s also about love: how challenging it can be, how it reveals your weaknesses and wounds, and how, if you allow it, it will push you to grow and change.
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An interesting though slightly disjointed memoir about falling in love and negotiating life with PMDD. Some parts of this book will be relevant to anyone who gets a period, while other aspects are specific to PMDD and Chloe’s own life. It left me unsettled, but I did learn a lot about a diagnosis that I was unfamiliar with.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
I Am Ace
How do I know if I’m actually sexual?
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How do I come out as asexual?
What kinds of relationship can I have as an ace person?
If you are looking for answers to these questions, Cody is here to help. Within these pages lie all the advice you need as a questioning ace teen.
Tackling everything from what asexuality is, the asexual spectrum and tips on coming out, to intimacy, relationships, acephobia and finding joy, this guide will help you better understand your asexual identity alongside deeply relatable anecdotes drawn from Cody’s personal experience.
Whether you are ace, demi, gray-ace or not sure yet, this book will give you the courage and confidence to embrace your authentic self and live your best ace life.
This book was everything I wanted it to be, and if you are new to the asexual community (or if someone you love is ace), this book is a great place to start. Cody is sympathetic, upbeat, and willing to share from their own experiences to show the wide variety of ace experiences. I found it affirming, interesting, and useful.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
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A truly beautiful, heartwrenching account of one woman’s contentious and powerful connection with her mother. It’s a story filled with music, food, culture, and cancer. I laughed and cried; I absolutely loved it.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
Red Paint
An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage in this bold, contemporary journey to reclaim her heritage and unleash her power and voice while searching for a permanent home.
Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe has always longed for a sense of home. When she was a child, her family moved around frequently, often staying in barely habitable church attics and trailers, dangerous places for young Sasha.
With little more to guide her than a passion for the thriving punk scene of the Pacific Northwest and a desire to live up to the responsibility of being the namesake of her beloved great-grandmother—a linguist who helped preserve her Indigenous language of Lushootseed—Sasha throws herself headlong into the world, determined to build a better future for herself and her people.
Set against a backdrop of the breathtaking beauty of Coast Salish ancestral land and imbued with the universal spirit of punk, Red Paint is ultimately a story of the ways we learn to find our true selves while fighting for our right to claim a place of our own.
Examining what it means to be vulnerable in love and in art, Sasha offers up an unblinking reckoning with personal traumas amplified by the collective historical traumas of colonialism and genocide that continue to haunt native peoples. Red Paint is an intersectional autobiography of lineage, resilience, and, above all, the ability to heal.
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A memoir of a Coast Salish woman coming to terms with her past and present trauma as well as her ancestry. I don’t usually love memoirs, and I’m not sure that I loved this one, but I read it in one sitting–the author pulls you in and you feel for her as she works to find healing.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Good
Quietly Hostile
Samantha Irby invites us to share in the gory particulars of her real life, all that festers behind the glitter and glam.
The success of Irby’s career has taken her to new heights. She fields calls with job offers from Hollywood and walks the red carpet with the iconic ladies of Sex and the City. Finally, she has made it. But, behind all that new-found glam, Irby is just trying to keep her life together as she always had.
Her teeth are poisoning her from inside her mouth, and her diarrhea is back. She gets turned away from a restaurant for wearing ugly clothes, she goes to therapy and tries out Lexapro, gets healed with Reiki, explores the power of crystals, and becomes addicted to QVC. Making light of herself as she takes us on an outrageously funny tour of all the details that make up a true portrait of her life, Irby is once again the relatable, uproarious tonic we all need.
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Laugh out loud funny, as always, filled with relatable essays as well as stories that could only have happened to Samantha Irby. If you enjoyed her previous books, you’ve probably already ordered this one, and it will not disappoint. I loved it.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
Short Stories by Jesus
The renowned biblical scholar, author of The Misunderstood Jew , and general editor for The Jewish Annotated New Testament interweaves history and spiritual analysis to explore Jesus’ most popular teaching parables, exposing their misinterpretations and making them lively and relevant for modern readers. Jesus was a skilled storyteller and perceptive teacher who used parables from everyday life to effectively convey his message and meaning. Life in first-century Palestine was very different from our world today, and many traditional interpretations of Jesus’ stories ignore this disparity and have often allowed anti-Semitism and misogyny to color their perspectives. In this wise, entertaining, and educational book, Amy-Jill Levine offers a fresh, timely reinterpretation of Jesus’ narratives. In Short Stories by Jesus , she analyzes these “problems with parables,” taking readers back in time to understand how their original Jewish audience understood them. Levine reveals the parables’ connections to first-century economic and agricultural life, social customs and morality, Jewish scriptures and Roman culture. With this revitalized understanding, she interprets these moving stories for the contemporary reader, showing how the parables are not just about Jesus, but are also about us—and when read rightly, still challenge and provoke us two thousand years later.
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Fascinating and challenging look at the parables of Jesus by a Jewish author. She brings great insight into first century Jewish culture and norms, helping readers understand how the original (Jewish) audience would have understood these stories. At times the book can get dense, as Levine debunks many antisemitic interpretations of the parables, many of which I had never heard.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Everybody Come Alive
In her debut book, Everybody Come Alive, Marcie Alvis Walker invites readers into a deeply intimate and illuminating memoir comprising lyrical essays and remembrances of being a curious child of the seventies and eighties, raised under the critical and watchful eye of Jim Crow matriarchs who struggled to integrate their lives and remain whole.
While swimming in rivers of racial trauma and racial reckoning, Alvis Walker explores her earliest memories of abandonment and erasure, of her mother’s mental illness and incarceration, and of her ongoing struggles with perfectionism and body dysmorphia in hopes of leaving a healed and whole legacy for her own child. Nostalgic but unflinching, candid yet tender, Everybody Come Alive is an invitation to be vulnerable along with her as she unravels all the beauty and terror of God, race, and gender’s imprint on her life.
This is a coming-of-age journey touching on the bittersweet pain and joy of what it takes to become a person who embraces being Black, a woman, and holy in America. Alvis Walker’s unforgettable writing challenges readers to not only see and hold her story as being fully human, but also to see and hold their own stories too.
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A really powerful, insightful, honest, gorgeously written memoir. The author’s wisdom and lived experience comes through on every page. If you want to read an exploration of race, gender, and religion, this is perfect for you.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Life in Five Senses
For more than a decade, Gretchen Rubin had been studying happiness and human nature. Then, one day, a visit to her eye doctor made her realize that she’d been overlooking a key element of happiness: her five senses. She’d spent so much time stuck in her head that she’d allowed the vital sensations of life to slip away, unnoticed. This epiphany lifted her from a state of foggy preoccupation into a world rediscovered by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching.
In this journey of self-experimentation, Rubin explores the mysteries and joys of the five senses as a path to a happier, more mindful life. Drawing on cutting-edge science, philosophy, literature, and her own efforts to practice what she learns, she investigates the profound power of tuning in to the physical world.
From the simple pleasures of appreciating the magic of ketchup and adding favorite songs to a playlist, to more adventurous efforts like creating a daily ritual of visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending Flavor University, Rubin show us how to experience each day with depth, delight, and connection. In the rush of daily life, she finds, our five senses offer us an immediate, sustainable way to cheer up, calm down, and engage the world around us—as well as a way to glimpse the soul and touch the transcendent.
Life in Five Senses is an absorbing, layered story of discovery filled with profound insights and practical suggestions about how to heighten our senses and use our powers of perception to live fuller, richer lives—and, ultimately, how to move through the world with more vitality and love.
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Enjoyable and packed with tips to create a more joyful life by engaging with your five senses. It is told through the lens of Rubin’s own experiences and experiments. I occasionally had a hard time relating to the book, however, as Gretchen talks a lot about how she doesn’t enjoy food or music, which are two of the three great passions of my life (books, of course, are the third!).
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
It Won’t Always Be Like This
It’s hard enough to figure out boys, beauty, and being cool when you’re young, but even harder when you’re in a country where you don’t understand the language, culture, or religion.
Nine-year-old Malaka Gharib arrives in Egypt for her annual summer vacation abroad and assumes it’ll be just like every other vacation she’s spent at her dad’s place in Cairo. But her father shares news that changes everything: He has remarried. Over the next fifteen years, as she visits her father’s growing family summer after summer, Malaka must reevaluate her place in his life. All that on top of maintaining her coolness!
Malaka doesn’t feel like she fits in when she visits her dad–she sticks out in Egypt and doesn’t look anything like her fair-haired half siblings. But she adapts. She learns that Nirvana isn’t as cool as Nancy Ajram, that there’s nothing better than a Fanta and a melon-mint hookah, that the desert is most beautiful at dawn, and that her new stepmother, Hala, isn’t so different from Malaka herself.
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A coming of age graphic memoir about the author’s childhood summers spent in Egypt with her father and his new wife and children. This is a story of identity and belonging and family and growing up. It’s short and enjoyable.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
Fine: A Comic about Gender
A vibrant and informative debut with “great documentary power” (Alison Bechdel), Fine is an elegantly illustrated celebration of the transgender community. As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns―and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art―and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms.
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This graphic memoir (graphic documentary?) is a powerful, confusing, beautiful, and painful look at the world of gender through the eyes of non-binary and trans people. I went in looking for answers but came out instead with a better idea of the questions I should be asking. This is well worth reading, whatever your gender identity.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
How to Keep House While Drowning
How to Keep House While Drowning will introduce you to six life-changing principles that will revolutionize the way you approach home care—without endless to-do lists. Presented in 31 daily thoughts, this compassionate guide will help you begin to get free of the shame and anxiety you feel over home care.
Inside you will learn:
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· How to shift your perspective of care tasks from moral to functional;
· How to stop negative self-talk and shame around care tasks;
· How to give yourself permission to rest, even when things aren’t finished;
· How to motivate yourself to care for your space.
I can’t believe a book about cleaning made me cry. Purposely made to be accessible for many types of neurodivergent people, this book will give you a new perspective on what really matters in keeping your house. It somehow manages to be both intensely practical and touching on a deep emotional level. This is a must read, no matter what your mental health struggles are or have been.
Rating: Re-read Worthy
All My Knotted-Up Life
“It’s a peculiar thing, this having lived long enough to take a good look back. We go from knowing each other better than we know ourselves to barely sure if we know each other at all, to precisely sure that we don’t. All my knotted-up life I’ve longed for the sanity and simplicity of knowing who’s good and who’s bad. I’ve wanted to know this about myself as much as anyone. This was not theological. It was strictly relational. God could do what he wanted with eternity. I was just trying to make it here in the meantime. As benevolent as he has been in a myriad of ways, God has remained aloof on this uncomplicated request .” – Beth Moore
New York Times best-selling author, speaker, visionary, and founder of Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore has devoted her whole life to helping women across the globe come to know the transforming power of Jesus. An established writer of many acclaimed books and Bible studies for women on spiritual growth and personal development, Beth now unveils her own story in a much-anticipated debut memoir.
All My Knotted-Up Life is told with surprising candor about some of the personal heartbreaks and behind-the-scenes challenges that have marked Beth’s life. But beyond that, it’s a beautifully crafted portrait of resilience and survival, a poignant reminder of God’s enduring faithfulness, and proof positive that if we ever truly took the time to hear people’s full stories . . . we’d all walk around slack-jawed.
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Although I have not had a lot of exposure to Beth Moore’s popular women’s studies and am unfamiliar with the majority of her work, I heard great things about her memoir and decided to pick it up. What a powerful, emotional memoir from the queen of Bible studies, so recently dethroned from Lifeway. I though the majority of the book would center around recent events, but Moore doesn’t shy away from discussing the traumas she faced from childhood on. Despite her hardships, her faith in Jesus has remained her anchor in a way that I found inspiring, despite the fact that she and I no doubt have many disagreements about faith, politics, and more. Truly breathtaking and heartwrenching. I read it in one sitting.
Rating: Pretty Darn Good
Falling Back in Love with Being Human
Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.
But then Kai Cheng found herself in a crisis of faith, overwhelmed by the viciousness with which people treated one another, and barely clinging to the values and ideals she’d built her life around: justice, hope, love, and healing. Rather than succumb to despair and cynicism, she gathered all her rage and grief and took one last leap of faith: she wrote. Whether prayers or spells or poems–and whether there’s a difference–she wrote to affirm the outcasts and runaways she calls her kin. She wrote to flawed but nonetheless lovable men, to people with good intentions who harm their own, to racists and transphobes seemingly beyond saving. What emerged was a blueprint for falling back in love with being human.
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Beautiful letters from the author to the most unlikely people, from transphobes to Jesus Christ to her childhood self. This short little book is filled with beauty, joy, and forgiveness. The short essay/epistolary style isn’t my personal favorite, but I still found it enjoyable and touching.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Rating: Good but Forgettable
Newbery and Beyond 