Review of The Crooked Places Made Straight, by Raphael G. Warnock

Christian, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Crooked Places Made Straight

Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America

by Raphael G. Warnock

Penguin Press, 2026. 187 pages.
Review written July 27, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I’m going to list this book by the senator from Georgia who is also a pastor with Christian books, but I could just as well put it in the Current Issues section (and that’s where it is on the library shelves). Because yes, Raphael Warnock talks about political issues, but they are also moral issues and issues the Bible speaks to.

This book looks at America as a great cathedral, 250 years into its construction. But like a cathedral, there’s still plenty of work to do. He uses verses from Isaiah to inspire, notably the one in the title, making crooked places straight.

He takes a more specific look at six crooked places that we need to work toward straightening: poverty, voting rights, money in politics, mass incarceration, gun violence, and climate change – and how the initial impacts are hitting minorities the hardest. All of these discussions come from a place of deep faith.

Here’s where he discusses voting rights:

We are in a rough place right now, fighting to save our fragile democracy. As a man of faith, I often say that I believe democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea. It is the notion that each of us has within us a spark of the divine. Therefore, we ought to have a vote and a voice in the direction of our country and our destiny within it.

He explains his use of Isaiah’s writings to write a political book.

Isaiah’s words are so beautiful, so sublime, that they cut right through the hopelessness of a people awash in despair. How we need this kind of bold vision in a moment like our own! The truth is that the partisan and petty rhetoric of politics today is simply too puny a language for the magnitude of the problems we face. Instead, I urge us to look to Isaiah as a lens through which to view the problems that confront us and the possibilities within and around us. The goal of this book is to lay out that vision clearly so that we can work together to build the America that we want to see.

So despite confronting some difficult problems in America today, Senator Warnock writes a book of hope and vision. He makes the reader want to play our part in building a grand and beautiful cathedral formed by “we, the people.” I hope many will read it and be motivated to take action.

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Review of Homeschooled, by Stefan Merrill Block

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Homeschooled

by Stefan Merrill Block
read by the Author

Harlequin Audio, 2026. 7 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written July 6, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

Ouch. This true story had me doing lots of cringing for the author’s past self – as well as for some of my younger siblings who were homeschooled.

To be fair, he puts a detailed note at the end that every homeschool is different, as every family is different. He doesn’t at all advocate for abolishing home schooling, though he does think that for the sake of the kids, there should be more regulation and supervision to make sure kids aren’t sitting alone in their rooms reading comic books and not seeing other people – like he did.

This is his story of being homeschooled, from fourth grade through eighth grade. He went back to school in ninth grade, and after extremely difficult adjustment learning to take tests and write papers, he did well in high school.

His homeschooling happened in Texas when laws had recently been changed to pave the way for home schooling. His mother essentially wanted to keep him her little boy and have him with her at all times. She took him out of school ostensibly because school was crushing his genius. It wasn’t religious homeschooling, but the “unschooling” movement. The idea was that he would “follow his passions” and “learn to learn,” but in practice, the only curriculum he followed was math and Brain Quest cards.

To be fair, he did end up as an author – writing in his room, just as he had done in homeschool. But still, the picture he paints isn’t what you’d want for a child, and included long stretches of loneliness.

But the story itself is absorbing and compelling. It’s a story not only of being homeschooled, but also about his relationship with the complex person who was his mother. And trying to find out who he was apart from her – when him being apart from her was the last thing she ever wanted.

stefanmerrillblock.com

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Review of Better Ways to Read the Bible, by Zach W. Lambert

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Better Ways to Read the Bible

Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

by Zach W. Lambert

Brazos Press, 2025. 202 pages.
Review written July 15, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Better Ways to Read the Bible is full of beautiful wisdom – beautiful in the sense that it promotes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and other fruit of the Spirit, as Zach says our Bible interpretation should do.

He starts by pointing out that everybody who reads the Bible interprets it. We don’t speak the same language or come from the same culture or time as when the Bible was written, so we can talk about “the plain reading of Scripture” – but we’re actually reading a translation during a time far removed from the original writers.

Everyone who reads and interprets the Bible does so with a set of assumptions about what the Bible is and how it’s supposed to work. This set of assumptions functions like a filter or a lens through which the reader attempts to make meaning. Although everyone reads the Bible through a lens (or set of lenses) – there is no neutral or unfiltered way to read it – many people are unaware that they’re doing so and have never stopped to take stock of the assumptions they bring to the text and how those assumptions impact interpretations.

I’m going to insert some of my own comments here. I accidentally learned about this back in the 1990s. I was reading books by George MacDonald and it dawned on me that George MacDonald, a man who clearly loved the Bible and knew it well, believed that hell is not forever. How could he possibly believe that? That’s not what the Bible says! And then I read the whole New Testament removing that filter – thinking Could this possibly be true?, and I saw how I could read passages completely differently. And focus on different passages, which with a fresh filter seemed to plainly say that all will be saved.

Or even when I was a teen and memorized John 9, where Jesus heals a blind man. The religious leaders say to the blind man, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” Even as a teen, I saw that those leaders were “proving from Scripture” – or their understanding of Scripture – that Jesus was not from God. It made me forever after be willing to question my interpretation.

And this book gives the reader tools for questioning their interpretations. He asks the reader to question the lenses they’re bringing to reading the Bible. He starts with lenses that cause harm (and he has plenty of examples from real people): “The Literalism Lens,” “The Apocalypse Lens,” “The Moralism Lens,” and “The Hierarchy Lens.”

And then he talks about four lenses that promote healing: “The Jesus Lens,” “The Context Lens,” “The Flourishing Lens,” and “The Fruitfulness Lens.” And yes! These chapters fill me with the joy of recognition. Back to applying it to where I first diverted from my Evangelical upbringing, I was told that believing in universal salvation was just wishful thinking, too good to be true. But isn’t our faith supposed to be good news? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And yes, he applies that to people who have been rejected by churches. That doesn’t fit any of the healing lenses above.

The Bible has always been the church’s book. It belongs to the people and is best interpreted within a healthy and diverse community. That’s how I know that the lenses I’ve been talking about promote healing rather than inflicting harm. Not because a scholar said so or because I cracked some code, but because I’ve seen them bring healing, wholeness, and flourishing to our community at Restore for a decade.

So I highly recommend this book. If you’ve ever been harmed by someone’s use of the Bible, there’s healing here. And if you love the Bible, you’ll find reasons to love it more.

zachwlambert.org

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Review of Burn the Haystack, by Jennie Young, PhD

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

Burn the Haystack

Decode Dating, Torch the Duds, and Make Room for Men Who Matter

by Jennie Young, PhD

William Morrow (HarperCollins), 2026. 302 pages.
Review written June 14, 2026, from an advance reader copy.
Starred Review

This book is absolutely brilliant! When I first took it home from our shelf of advance reader copies at work, I got hooked and stayed up way, way too late reading it. Then I put it down and tried to avoid reading it again because I didn’t want to stay up too late!

I had just finished reading another book about dating, which made me glad to not even be trying it again – but this book has changed my perspective, and I might actually try going back on the apps, if I get to a place where I’m willing to give it a little time. Whereas the other book implied that if you want to date with a matchmaker, you should be willing to put in plenty of effort – this approach is different and encourages you not to spend a lot of time on the apps.

Here’s the premise: Finding a man who’d be a good partner in a long-term relationship is like finding a needle in the haystack. How do you find a needle in a haystack? Burn the haystack of course!

The key step to burning the dating app haystack is “Block to Burn” or B2B. Once you’ve figured out a man is not an appropriate match, you don’t apologize. You don’t explain. You block him. If you don’t block, the apps will cycle back to the same men they already showed you.

She admits you’ll go on fewer dates with this method – but they should be better ones.

And that’s not all. Jennie Young has a PhD in Rhetoric. So she shows you not one, not two, but thirty-three red flag rhetorical patterns – and she explains what these patterns tell you and why you don’t need to feel guilty about blocking to burn.

This part delighted me – because in my experience with online dating, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every one of these patterns. They are not rare (and many men combine several). But when I tried to explain why I don’t like strangers calling me “Dear” in their first message, some friends tried to tell me I was being too picky and should give them a chance. So I laughed out loud (and felt vindicated) when I read this (meant to be humorous) about the rhetorical pattern of people who quickly give you a pet name:

It seems obvious that people shouldn’t use pet names with strangers, but men do all the time. Rather than spending too much time trying to figure out why, let’s focus on what calling women pet names reveals about the men who are doing so:

–That they are presumptuous enough to assume women will be okay with this and/or like the pet names they choose.
–That they view women as objects and animals rather than complex human beings whom they do not know.
–That they’ve somehow missed sweeping changes to discourse norms for the past several decades. It’s true that there was a time when men could get away with calling women they didn’t know “honey” or “sweetie pie,” but that time is long past.
–That they are socially clueless and insensitive.

Any one of these revelations suggests a man is undatable. Block to burn the pet namers.

Another pattern it felt vindicated to see mentioned was the “No drama” guys. I once posted a PSA on Twitter about what a bad idea it is to put “No Drama” in your dating profile – It totally implies that this guy does not and will not take his girlfriend’s emotions seriously. But when I posted that, some random guy on Twitter mansplained to me why it’s actually okay! Needless to say, he convinced me even more deeply to avoid such men. And now I know that everyone following the Burn the Haystack Method is doing the same!

Or then there’s the people whose first message is “Hi!” There’s a whole sidebar about why you don’t need to bother with them. I’d learned that the hard way, but felt guilty about it. Now – B2B.

Honestly, I was already considered “too picky” by many of my friends. I’ve only been on four first dates with men I’ve met online – but they were all good dates, and two of them led to further dates. But the catch was I only blocked obvious scammers. So yes, I saw the same people I’d ruled out again and again. And I got tired of wading through the hay, and just gave up on online dating.

And the best part? I was afraid I’d forget some of the thirty-three rhetorical patterns. But I joined the author’s Burn the Haystack Facebook group! People post examples, and the whole community chimes in. Most are encouraging the person posting to block, but just today, someone got the opposite advice because it was probably not a red flag the way it was worded. So the group doesn’t just bash every man. And many success stories are also posted. With every posting, I’m learning more about the method and will feel less and less guilty about blocking men whom I definitely don’t want to start a relationship with.

Yes, she admits you’ll date fewer men with this method. But I, for one, think that’s much, much better. I was already ruling a lot of people out – but this will make it easier and completely guilt-free. And who knows? Maybe a needle will come up.

In closing, I have also been accused of being judgy – and here’s the author’s response to that accusation:

It’s definitely judgy, but I don’t see that as a negative. I love to judge things. I consider myself an excellent judge. It isjudgy, and it should be. You are choosing a human being, potentially for the rest of your life. There is no scenario that calls for more judgment. Being judgy keeps us safe, protects our boundaries and our time, and results in far better selections. Judge away, I say!

Oh, I should also add that this method is primarily for women looking for a long-term monogamous relationship. The author never implies that anything else is bad – that’s just what this method is designed for. Men who read the book can learn what not to say in their dating profiles. But if they don’t mean it and clean up their intentions behind those words – I do think red flags will slip out anyway. If you avoid these red flags and really mean what you’re saying – I think you’ll end up being a better relationship partner, so it’s all good.

So, will I use this info and jump into the dating pool again? I’m not sure, but meanwhile, I’m thoroughly enjoying watching empowered women in the Facebook group ruthlessly block to burn and end up finding their needles. Or simply being happier on their own.

If you’re single, I highly recommend this book. If you’re not single, you might get a kick out of it, too. At least stop giving dating advice to single friends until you’ve read it, please.

burnedhaystack.substack.com

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Review of Braving the Truth, by Rachel Held Evans

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

coverBraving the Truth

Essential Essays for Reckoning with and Reimagining Faith

by Rachel Held Evans
edited by Sarah Bessey

HarperOne, 2026. 383 pages.
Review written May 17, 2026, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com
Starred Review

Rachel Held Evans was a Christian writer who wrestled with her faith in print – and changed people’s lives. She died way too soon in 2019, only 38 years old. She started blogging in 2007, shortly before she started publishing books – and this book collects many of those blog posts.

Editor Sarah Bessey chose the selection of posts to collect in this book, and she also included tributes from 37 other authors – usually after a blog post from Rachel that especially inspired that author when it was first posted.

This book makes me so wish I was following Rachel when she was blogging. [Yes, I was blogging at the time, but I wasn’t reading a lot of blogs because I was so busy with books. I also didn’t have a good feed reader, so attempts to read blogs usually got forgotten. Now that many authors have switched to Substack, my email has blown up with unread emails, so maybe it’s just as well?] Anyway, now that it’s in book form, I can see so much wisdom coming from this young woman. It does make me wish I’d been in on the conversations she got going on her blog.

What is it about? The essays (That sounds more book-like than posts, doesn’t it?) are presented in categories, rather than chronologically, though the book does start with her first blog post and end with her last. The topics covered are Evolving Faith, Patriarchy and White Supremacy, the Church, Gender and Sexuality, and “Life in the Midst of It All.”

This is full of wonderful writing, Braving the Truth is an appropriate title, because Rachel gets real with her readers, and that wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Let me copy a few examples of quotations I marked to give you an idea:

This is from a post on lessons she learned the hard way:

It’s not always right to rock the boat. I get frustrated with Christians who seem to find it easy to believe everything their pastor tells them to believe. It makes me especially angry when my friends refuse to even listen to new ideas because they are either too certain or too afraid to see things from another perspective. But I’ve learned that it is not my job to test other people’s faith. My job is to be a friend to people who are already struggling through tough questions, to offer companionship on the difficult journey through doubt. I am to be a counselor, not a recruiter. It’s not always right to rock the boat.

This is a post about what she’d say if she got a chance years later to redo the commencement address she gave as a graduate of a conservative Christian university:

I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight. Instead God used gay people to show me how to be Christian.

I thought the world needed my answers, but as it turns out, I needed the world’s questions. I needed to learn how to doubt well, listen better, and be humbled by how little I know. I needed to discover that evangelicalism is just one table in Christ’s banquet hall, the Great Cloud of Witnesses far more sprawling and diverse than I’d ever imagined.

And this is from an essay called, “I love the Bible.”

I love the Bible more now than ever before because I have finally surrendered to God’s stories.
God’s long, strange, beautiful stories.
We asked questions.
God told stories.
We demanded answers.
God told stories.
We argued theology.
God told stories.

And when those stories weren’t enough, when the words themselves would not suffice, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, laughed among us, wept among us, ate among us, told more stories among us, suffered among us, died among us, and rose among us. The Word entered our story and invited us into his.

If you’ve already read any of Rachel Held Evans books, I probably don’t need to tell you that, yes, you’ll want to read this one. If you haven’t read any of her books, this would be a great place to start. Many of the posts (essays!) were written before her books were published, but they also give a great overview of the topics that she wrote about in her other published books. This brings her thoughts together, and the tributes alongside show that she powerfully affected people’s lives in good ways.

You couldn’t ask for a nicer tribute than this lovingly collected volume.

rachelheldevans.com
harpercollins.com

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Review of The Heart of the Psalms, by James C. Howell

Christian, Nonfiction Review 0

The Heart of the Psalms

God’s Word to the World

by James C. Howell

Abingdon Press, 2025. 125 pages.
Review written May 25, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com

I’ll be honest. I purchased and read this book to have a “Competitive Title” on my book proposal for my own Psalms book. (Which is currently being submitted to publishers by my recently signed-with literary agent! I’m so excited!) I heard about it when I had mentioned my book to a friend from church, and they said that their own small group had just begun a study of Psalms, using this book.

So first, the good news is that the books complement each other, taking different approaches to Psalms. So that particular small group won’t need to skip my book because they’ve already studied Psalms. Instead, each book has a different way of showing readers the riches found in Psalms.

James Howell’s deep love for Psalms shines in this book. His Introduction talks about how that love developed and how much the Psalms mean to him. This book isn’t so much a study of the book of Psalms as a riff on six particular Psalms. He has a chapter for each of Psalms 8, 27, 51, 73, 90, and 116. In each one, he dives into that particular Psalm and all the side trails that it may bring up, showing us how rich the Psalms are in emotion and in application.

Here’s a paragraph from the Introduction:

What are the Psalms? Just a long collection of prayers that cry out, give thanks, plead, ponder, praise, and speak with God in surprising and profound ways. Most were sung, and from memory. Thankfully, they landed in the Bible, not because they are about God, but because they are directed to God. And when we read and speak them aloud now, they reveal to us what we’d never noticed or what we’d feared to notice about ourselves. I could deliver a lecture on what the Psalms were and are. But there’s no substitute for reading them, slowly and quietly.

It’s easy to see in this author the same desire I have – to get people reading and savoring the Psalms, knowing they’ll end up loving them, too.

How is my book different? Instead of looking at Psalms individually, I divide the Psalms into ten types and talk about what each type has in common – so the reader can pray their own psalms, using those patterns. So the two books can go together, with my book giving more of an overview, and this book looking at six particular Psalms, giving examples of five of the types.

And both of us hope that you will glimpse God’s heart toward us by taking a closer look at Psalms.

abingdonpress.com

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Review of Your Last First Date, by Jaydi Samuels Kuba

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth 0

Your Last First Date

Secrets of a Hollywood Matchmaker

by Jaydi Samuels Kuba

Avid Reader Press, 2026. 248 pages.
Review written April 15, 2026, from a library book.

Okay, I read this for fun. And got pretty invested in finding out if the clients whose stories she gives us would find a match.

The author is a screenwriter and a professional matchmaker in Hollywood. In this book she highlights three clients – who are composite characters with their names changed for privacy. So how much of their stories are “true”? I’m guessing she gets plenty of similar cases, so these people might as well exist.

Although the book did make me consider doing some dating again, by the time I’d closed the book, I’d remembered that you really do need to give it a lot of time and attention – and my heart isn’t there right now. My oldest was recently staying with me, and that reminded me it’s nice to come home to someone you love. But after they left, I noticed how my writing projects were lagging and I felt behind on things. I do know people are worth it, and I don’t regret that time with my kid for a minute – but at this point in my life, I’m too happy with my current situation to invest a lot of time and energy in changing it.

But the book was still a lot of fun! She explains getting her agency going and tells about meeting her own husband – and takes us through the process with three clients. One of them is feeling a time limit – she wants to get married and get pregnant in a year – or she’s going to look into artificial insemination. But despite that urgency, as it starts off, she seems to be dragging her feet. She needs to learn which “requirements” are really requirements and which are excuses not to get involved.

The next client is a man who’s a bit self-absorbed and wants to meet much younger women – and then is very hard to please. He had some of the same lessons to learn. I also like her explanation of some of the ways people cope with being nervous on a first date – for example, some babble, some clam up, and some go stiff – and how you can be aware of your own tendencies, but also don’t make snap judgments based on a first impression.

The third client got into a relationship quickly – and then there were lots of red flags. So there was discussion about the difference between red flags and harmless quirks. But also, this client had to learn to love and value herself, which then helped her find someone who would treat her as valuable.

It was probably a good thing for me to at least think about dating again – and this was a nice entertaining way to do so, with reflections on what’s healthy and what to look for while we’re at it.

Further thoughts on May 16, 2026, before posting this review: I had fun reading this book, but as reflected above, it didn’t make me want to start dating again, since it reminded me of how much work and time that involves. On further reflection, that’s partly from a matchmaking situation: Clients pay the matchmaker for their services for a certain amount of time, and in order to get their money’s worth, they need to do plenty of dates.

I recently started reading a book that may actually get me to try dating again. (And I think I picked it up because of reading this book.) It’s called Burn the Haystack. Written by Jennie Young, who has a PhD in rhetoric, the key thing is when you rule someone out, you block them to keep the algorithm from recycling and showing them to you again. And with her knowledge of rhetoric, she helps you see patterns that you should block without guilt.

Anyway, I haven’t finished that book yet, but stay tuned for a review. And let me repeat that I did enjoy this book – but more in a way that it’s fun to watch these people dating, but it didn’t make me want to do it myself.

ljmatchmaking.com

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Review of Good Soil, by Jeff Chu

Christian, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

Good Soil

The Education of an Accidental Farmhand

by Jeff Chu

Convergent, 2025. 317 pages.
Review written March 24, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com

Good Soil is a memoir about Jeff Chu’s time as a student and worker at the Farminary – a farm owned by Princeton Theological Seminary that hosted classes.

The book is meditative about spiritual things and about issues he was dealing with in his life. His parents didn’t accept his husband, but he tried to maintain a relationship with them. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life and was looking for direction, and toward the end of his time there, his good friend Rachel Held Evans passed away, and then the friendly Farminary dog did, too.

I read this slowly, absorbing the lessons as a daily devotional reading. It helped me look at the natural world with fresh eyes. I newly appreciate how compost reminds us that even in death, there is life and nourishment.

I think most of all, I appreciate this story. It’s a story of how when Jeff Chu was at a loss, God showed up and helped him find what he needed and new friends to be with him along the path. I appreciate how working with his hands in the dirt enhanced the work and study he was doing with his mind.

byjeffchu.com
convergentbooks.com

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Review of Toilets of the World, by Patrick Kinsella

Art, Creativity, Nonfiction Review, Photography 0

Toilets of the World

100 Strange & Spectacular Thrones, Commodes, Loos, & Latrines

written by Patrick Kinsella
and Lonely Planet editors

Lonely Planet, 2025. 142 pages.
Review written December 23, 2025, from a library book.

When the nonfiction selector for our library system posted a Teams message about this book he was ordering (There may have been a request.), at least a couple of us couldn’t resist putting it on hold.

This is a book of photography – of toilets in far-flung, and usually gorgeous, corners of the world. There’s a glossary of toilet terms, a toilet timeline, and list of extreme toilets (the lowest, the highest, the oldest, the most expensive – that sort of thing). There’s even a list of ways to ask, “Where is the toilet?” in twelve different countries. You’ll find photos of toilets from all over the world. And an abundance of potty puns.

What can I say? I had to see this book for myself. A glimpse of the world from the point of view of the facilities. They indeed surprised and delighted me.

No, I will not be using this as a list to try and go visit – many were remote (such as the one on Mount Everest), and I’m happy that someone did it for me – and took a picture.

If you, like me, can’t resist taking a peek at these ravishing restrooms – you know who you are!

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Review of Sacred Belonging, by Kat Armas

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Sacred Belonging

A 40-Day Devotional on the Liberating Heart of Scripture

by Kat Armas

Brazos Press, 2023. 195 pages.
Review written April 14, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

I have a strong knowledge of Scripture – attending Christian schools since elementary school and memorizing large portions – but Kat Armas is able to get me looking at Scripture with new eyes and asking new questions and yes, making new applications.

There are 40 devotionals in this book, in nice bite-sized pieces to mull over as you go about your day. I read them during Lent this year, but they are appropriate for any time of year.

Let me quote from the Introduction to let you know the focus of these devotionals:

The bodily resurrection of Jesus is an invitation to be fully human.

That’s what this devotional is about: being human. And with our humanity comes the ability to inquire, to imagine, to dream, to create.

When it comes to Scripture, I wonder what kind of relationship many of us would have to the text if we had all been invited to do those things when we read it. Rather than viewing the Bible as a book of absolutes, what if we were to read it as a diverse book of stories and instructions relating to the human experience in all its messiness and beauty? Oe of my seminary professors once said that when we read the Bible, we should read it with resistance: constantly asking questions, wrestling with it the way Jacob wrestled with God.

She also talks about the way colonizers and imperialists used the Bible to further their own aims.

I argue that such a syndrome has permeated our being, causing us to view the world as fixed, linear, dichotomous, and functioning in hierarchical relationships of domination and submission. For many of us, the assumptions behind how we perceive the biblical text have brought us to a place of unlearning and unraveling – of decolonizing – where we find ourselves hungry for new, liberating insights into our faith tradition.

For me, she succeeded at bringing a fresh and refreshing approach to biblical stories. She succeeded in these goals she articulated at the end of the Introduction:

My hope is that these words will point you to a belonging deeper than you have dreamed of, that you will see and experience yourself being tethered to your ancestors, to God, and to every created thing. And in exploring this relationality, I also hope that you will get to know divinity as embodied – where you can find a God who is familiar with planting and sewing, good wine and lilies. This is the God to whom we belong: one who is wholly material and wholly spiritual. As close to us as our own skin and far beyond anything our minds can fathom. It is in this paradox where we exist, where our spiritualities find their home. This is where we find sacred belonging.

If you take up this book, I promise your devotional time won’t feel routine.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/sacred_belonging.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?